Business Extra

About 80,000 participants from all around the world are expected to make the journey to the UAE for the much-anticipated Cop28 summit.

But how did we get to Cop28? There have been 27 previous climate conferences just like this. So what milestones did they achieve and what should we expect this year?

Host Cody Combs, future editor for The National, talks to climate historian Professor Bart Elmore and global environmental history professor at the Ohio State University, Nick Breyfogle, about the history of Cop, how it will set the tone for Cop28 in Dubai and the future of environmentalism.

Expectations are high for climate solutions as the UAE hosts the Cop conference for the first time.

What is Cop? What should we expect at Cop28, and what does it all mean for humanity?

On the first episode of the special climate edition series, Cody Combs, future editor for The National and the new host of the Business Extra podcast, brings you all the updates and key information that you need to know ahead of the climate summit that will kick off on November 30.

Business Extra is back with an all-new season to cover business, cutting-edge tech, eco-friendly innovation, sustainability, and the minds behind each of these topics.

In 2019, Hub71 invited start-ups to move to Abu Dhabi, promising founders free housing, office space and health insurance for the first year, access to investors and one of the most dynamic and connected regions in the world.

Four years later, Abu Dhabi’s start-up ecosystem is among the fastest-growing in the world, according to a new ranking from Startup Genome.

Amer Aidi, head of marketing and operations at Hub71, joins host Kelsey Warner this week to talk about what founders can expect if they move to the UAE and how the community – and the start-up scene in general – has changed in just four years.

In this episode:

• Silicon Valley remains top place for start-ups but Mena cities on the rise

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In this episode:

The global economy has weathered the most tumultuous century in modern history and most of the previous financial crises have shared similarities from which we can learn.

So writes Dr Linda Yueh, CBE, in her new book, The Great Crashes: Lessons from Global Meltdowns and How to Prevent Them.

She joins Business Extra host Kelsey Warner this week to share her analysis of major market crashes, from currency crunches and Japan's housing crisis to the dot-com bust and the Covid-19 pandemic, she shares the underlying factors that led to these meltdowns and what we can learn to help avoid or recover from future crises.

• Biden declares 'crisis averted' in debt ceiling bill passage

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Snapchat long stood out among other social media platforms for introducing interactive user experiences such as filters and augmented reality features.

But today, with TikTok on the scene and Meta, Instagram and YouTube introducing products for creating content, the social media scene has evolved, technology has changed and audiences are different.

In this episode:

• Snapchat for Web is coming — here's what it means for UAE users

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New research from cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks has found that a little more than half of chief executives in the UAE estimate potential losses from cybersecurity attacks have increased in the past year.

Haider Pasha, senior director and chief security officer at Palo Alto Networks in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Latin America, joins Business Extra host Kelsey Warner this week to explain the scope of cybersecurity risks in 2023.

Mr Pasha explained that they help organisations consolidate different tools within their networks, support AI and machine learning and help companies prepare and detect cyberattacks.

In this episode:

Questions loom about the future of work and there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Companies in the UAE have been turning to Cosmic Centaurs to navigate these fast-changing times. The Dubai-based consultancy helps employers design and put in place new ways of working to increase returns while boosting employee happiness.

Founder and chief executive Marilyn Zakhour joins host Kelsey Warner this week to talk about how high-performing companies navigate change.

In this episode:

• Home-working blamed for record long-term sickness among UK unemployed

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Last week, the World Health Organization announced that Covid-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking an end - albeit a symbolic one - to the pandemic.

Pfizer, maker of one of the most-used Covid-19 jabs and an antiviral pill, hit a record-breaking $100 billion in revenues in 2022, spurred by earnings from those treatments.

As the pandemic wanes and demand for treatments drops off, the New York-headquartered pharmaceuticals company is in a "transition year", chief executive Albert Bourla said on a first-quarter earnings call.

Patrick van der Loo, a regional president who oversees the Middle East, Russia and Africa, talks to host Kelsey Warner this week about what a transition means for the world's biggest pharmaceutical company by revenue, how the pandemic changed drug development cycles and what the Gulf's potential is for taking a piece of the booming life sciences industry.

In this episode:

• Pfizer drops sales guidance after posting 47% jump in Q4 profits

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