Kyiv International Airport named after Sikorsky has started a phased reduction of its employees, amid the crisis in the aviation industry due to the coronavirus pandemic, the airport’s press service has said. Currently, the airport division is deciding whom of the employees to dismiss and how to optimize the operation of the enterprise.
“We predict a slow recovery in demand for air travel and expect a return to the pre-quarantine level in only a few years. We cannot survive on our own without support from the state. Unfortunately, we will have to fire 50% of the staff, including highly qualified specialists of the industry,” director general of Master-Avia management company Oleh Levchenko said.
The airport also stressed that the problem was also aggravated by a lack of reaction and assistance from the government, the relevant ministry and Kyiv authorities, despite the fact that the airport management had repeatedly appealed to the authorities for help.
In total, according to the enterprise, about 2,000 people work at the airport and Master-Avia. Another 8,000 employees work in related enterprises that cooperate with the airport.
Kyiv Airport is the second Ukrainian airport in terms of passenger traffic.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) is expanding the list of destinations for July and August 2020 due to the easing by some countries of the border crossing regime for Ukrainian tourists.
According to the press service of the company, domestic flights will be operated in three directions – Kherson, Odesa and Lviv.
So, in the period from July 1 to July 30, UIA will serve domestic flights to Odesa, Lviv and Kherson, flying every Friday to the regions and returning to Kyiv every Sunday. However, in the first half of August, it is planned to change the schedule for the direction Kyiv-Odesa: flights will be operated on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (Odesa-Kyiv on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). From August 16 to August 31, a flight to Odesa on Thursdays may also be added.
International flights, as UIA notes, will be operated in the directions of the airline’s regular flight program: Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Dubai, Tbilisi, Batumi, Larnaca, Athens, London, Nice, Rome, Naples, Baku, Berlin, Milan, Munich, Prague, Yerevan, Madrid, Vienna, Barcelona, Chisinau, and there will also be periodic flights to Toronto.
Sociologists have conducted a survey among Ukrainians, during which they suggested choosing which of the allegations about the origin of coronavirus and its worldwide spread is true to a greater extent. Some 66% of respondents believe in the artificial origin of coronavirus.
The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in late May – early June asked respondents of the survey to choose among the following options: (1) natural occurrence and subsequently spread in the world; (2) artificial development in the laboratory, but random distribution in the world; (3) special development and deliberate distribution in the world to reduce the population and/or damage to individual countries. In addition, respondents could name their option.
Most respondents – one in three, 37% – chose the option that the coronavirus was “specially designed and intentionally distributed in the world to reduce the population and/or damage individual countries.” Another 29% chose the option that the coronavirus “was made artificially in the laboratory, but its worldwide spread was an accident.”
Only 18% chose the option that the coronavirus appeared naturally and then spread worldwide.
Respondents who chose the option of artificial origin, but accidentally distributed in the world, were asked the additional question “In which country, in your opinion, was the coronavirus artificially made?” The question was posed in an open form, that is, the respondent was not offered any answers.
“The vast majority of respondents (70%) believe that coronavirus was artificially developed in China. Another 5% called the United States, and 3% called Russia.
At the same time, respondents who chose the option “coronavirus was specially designed and intentionally distributed in the world to reduce the population and/or damage to individual countries” asked an additional question: “Who, in your opinion, is responsible for the development and intentional spread of coronavirus?” The question was also posed in an open form, that is, the respondent was not offered any answers.
“Half of the respondents (49%) found it difficult to answer the question. However, 26% believed that China was responsible for the development and deliberate distribution of coronavirus. The United States (11%) and Russia (with 2%) followed. Other answers were less common,” the information says.
KIIS conducted a CATI survey (using a computer assisted telephone interviews) based on a random sample of mobile phone numbers from May 31 to June 4, 2020. The sample is representative of the adult population (aged 18 years and older) of Ukraine. The sample does not include Russia-occupied areas in Donbas and Crimea.
During the survey, 2,000 interviews were conducted. The statistical error of the sample (with a probability of 0.95 and taking into account the design effect of 1.1) does not exceed: 2.2% for indicators close to 50%, 2.1% for indicators close to 25%, 1.4% – for indicators close to 10%.
Nowadays fast food is an unavoidable part of nutrition of an average urban resident. It is being promoted by aggressive advertising of fast food restaurant chains whose main task is to attract as many customers as possible and increase sales. The hidden side of such policy is addiction of a large number of people to ill-balanced and unhealthy nutrition, which, in turn, causes general health deterioration and even dangerous diseases.
Doctor of Biological Sciences Sviatoslav Leonov, who is also a healthy nutrition expert, in his commentary to the Expert Club YouTube channel spoke about the most popular products sold by the largest fast food restaurant chains, giving detailed description of each of them in terms of the contents of various harmful substances in them.
According to the expert, almost all fast food products contain transfat and are high in calories. Consumption of such food causes obesity and other bad consequences.
“Hamburgers, for example, often contain flavor intensifiers. It’s quite simple: you ate it, you enjoyed it, and you felt full-bellied. That’s how a habit is formed which enhances the likelihood of the fact that the customer will buy more and more,” Leonov said.
According to the expert, margarine is often used in fast food as its cost value is much lower than that of natural butter or plant oil. Meanwhile, a part of molecules of fat are transformed into the so-called transfat, which in high amounts is extremely dangerous for human health.
The expert also said that beverages proposed to fast food consumers are rich in carbohydrates which are accumulated in human body and build up excess weight, while desserts, including milkshakes, create a medium for the development of numerous microorganisms that may cause eating disorders and diarrhea.
The full video is available on the Expert Club channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj3VxYuY-lg
Tags: expert club, expert, healthy diet, nutrition, fast food, unhealthy eating, transfat, hamburger
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at a meeting on Thursday approved the launch of electronic residency in Ukraine.
“This is one of the unique projects of the Ministry of Digital Transformation, which can make Ukraine a powerful East European IT hub. Thanks to e-residency, in the near future, our country will become attractive for foreigners to do business, primarily IT specialists,” Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov said, commenting on the decision on his Facebook page.
According to him, online, without the need to visit Ukraine, foreigners will receive a Ukrainian qualified electronic signature, registration number of a tax payer’s account card, the ability to open an online account with a Ukrainian bank, and simplified access to administrative services in Ukraine.
“We see foreign IT specialists working for Ukrainian companies, as well as specialists from countries of the Asia-Pacific region and neighboring countries, for whom the status of Ukraine’s e-resident will help to effectively cooperate in the European market, as the first e-residents. Of course, all e-residents will pass a thorough check in Ukraine by law enforcement, financial authorities and the Ministry of Digital Transformation,” he said.
According to Fedorov, in the near future, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and other government agencies will develop a regulatory framework for the launch of the project. It is planned to launch an e-residency portal by the end of the year.
A total of 3,871 houses in 180 residential locations were flooded due to bad weather conditions in western Ukraine, cellars and household plots are still covered with water, roads, bridges and other infrastructure facilities were destroyed, eight residential locations in Prykarpattia are blacked out, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine has said. “The operations to clean-up the aftermath of rainfall floods continue in the territory of western regions (Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Lviv and Ternopil regions)… Three people were killed in the territory of Ivano-Frankivsk region,” it said on Saturday morning.
In the past 24 hours, the State Emergency Service rescued 46 people, evacuated three people and helped 183 people to cross the flooded areas, pumped 39,622 cubic meters of water, delivered 1,790 kilograms of food and 9,140 liters of drinking water to the local residents.
A total of 1,877 people and 455 units of equipment, including 613 employees of the State Emergency Service and 226 units of equipment (including two helicopters), were involved in the flood clean-up operations, the service said.
