Archive for March, 2022

UN Advisor is confident HoR will soon join Libya constitution basis talks – The Libya Observer

The UN Advisor, Stephanie Williams, thanked the High Council of State (HCS) for its constructive engagement in the Tunisia-held talks for constitution basis consensus, saying she is confident that their colleagues in the House of Representatives (HoR) will soon come to the table, and reiterating that the door for UN-facilitated negotiations is always open for the sake of Libya.

Williams explained on Twitter that she concluded on Thursday a three-day consultative meeting with a delegation of the HCS nominated to join the UN-facilitated joint committee to devise a sound constitutional basis to enable the holding of fair and inclusive elections.

The closing session was attended by representatives of the diplomatic community in Libya who reiterated their support for the UN initiative and engaged with the HCS representatives on their ideas pertaining to the constitutional basis. Williams added.

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UN Advisor is confident HoR will soon join Libya constitution basis talks - The Libya Observer

Libyan NOC reviews increasing oil production with France’s Total – The Libya Observer

The Chairman of the Libyan National Oil Corporation (NOC) Mustafa Sanallah discussed with a delegation from Total Energies consisting of Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Laurent Vivier, CEO of Total in Libya, Pascal Brent, and Manager of Assets Department - Total Libya Branch, Naseem Zouari, increasing rates of oil production and minimization of carbon emissions, as well as switching to renewable energies and the latest updates of the capacity-building programs of the oil sector.

During the meeting on Thursday, the attendees discussed ways to develop joint cooperation to implement a package of important topics, most notably Total's resumption of exploration operations at some locations, the orientation to raise production rates, the operations activity of the offshore Al-Jurf field, the NOC's active efforts and plans to reduce carbon emissions and benefit from Totals experience in this field, in addition to Total contribution to bring the renewable energies technologies and apply it in various operations in the Libyan oil sector.

NOC indicated that attendees also reviewed the latest developments in capacity-building programs to train national students at Libyan universities in the field of oil by Total Summer University and a range of other training programs in oil disciplines.

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Libyan NOC reviews increasing oil production with France's Total - The Libya Observer

Libya imposes total ban on fish exports and orders creation of three-month strategic food stock – Libya Herald

Libya imposed a total ban yesterday on the export of all types of fish effective immediately. It also announced the plan to create a three-month strategic stock of basic foods

The announcements came following a meeting held yesterday headed by Economy Minister Mohamed Hwej to discuss the mechanism of regulating the local market, the flow of goods and controlling their prices.

As well as key relevant government departments, the Economy Ministry reported that the meeting included security departments, several businessmen, mill owners and companies manufacturing and supplying foodstuffs.

During the meetings, the attendees discussed the problems and obstacles facing mills and companies in providing raw materials and importing basic commodities in large quantities, represented in opening credits for collection and the repercussions of the global political crisis on export and import operations and the high costs of shipping.

Minister of Economy Hwej stressed that the ministry will take a number of necessary measures to solve problems and overcome difficulties facing businessmen and suppliers, and form a working team headed by the Minister of State for Economic Affairs and membership of the law enforcement agencies to communicate and coordinate with the relevant authorities in the state, including the Audit Bureau and the Central Bank of Libya to provide the necessary facilities regarding opening cash against document credits.

He directed the owners of mills and companies manufacturing and importing food commodities to provide a strategic stockpile for a period of no less than three months, indicating that the ministry will begin setting the prices of basic commodities and referring them to the controlling authorities for implementation and control of violators and speculators within the framework of organizing the local market and achieving stability and food security for the citizen.

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Libya imposes total ban on fish exports and orders creation of three-month strategic food stock - Libya Herald

New tourist sea voyage to be opened between Libya, Turkish Cyprus and south east Turkey – Libya Herald

Turkey is planning to attract tourists from Libya and other southern Mediterranean countries to its southern shores via a soon-to-be-opened maritime transportation route, Turkeys Daily Sabah reported on Sunday.

The Hatay Sea Bus (HADO), which will also serve as the sea border gate, is scheduled to start its voyages at the end of May. The first passengers will be transported from the region to the Gazimausa (Famagusta) Port of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Later, the route will also serve as a sea bridge between the southern Turkish city of Hatay in Antakya and several southern Mediterranean countries, including Libya. Antakya borders Syria and shares many cultural Arab traits. Hatay had originally been a part of Syria, butTurkey annexed the region in 1939.

The article did not mention which port in Libya will be served, but it is highly likely to be the port of Misrata which already serves a route to Izmir which recently changed destination to Istanbul

In response to customer demand, Misratas passenger ferry line is changed to run from Misrata to Istanbul instead of to Izmir LibyaHerald

Misrata Passenger Terminal receives first passenger cruiser linking Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt LibyaHerald

Tunisian ambassador affirms desire to operate lines to Misrata Maritime Terminal | (libyaherald.com)

Misrata Maritime Terminal preparing to launch cruise trips to Istanbul after Eid | (libyaherald.com)

Benghazi port development discussed, including PPP investment model for passenger terminal and yacht marina | (libyaherald.com)

Egyptian ambassador visits Misrata, seeks increased cooperation | (libyaherald.com)

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New tourist sea voyage to be opened between Libya, Turkish Cyprus and south east Turkey - Libya Herald

Google wants to win the quantum computing race by being the tortoise, not the hare – The Next Web

The most exciting name in quantum computing today is Google. Last years time crystals breakthrough was the culmination of decades of academic effort from the Search giant, and it proved Big G is a clear front-runner in the world of cutting-edge quantum physics research.

Despite having virtually no B2B presence in the quantum computing marketplace, the Mountain View company managed to leverage itself as one of the most important players in the field.

Googles position comes as a bit of a surprise when you consider the competition. D-Waves been making quantum computers for about as long as Google has been in business. And both Microsoft and IBM have focused quantum computing ecosystems generating revenue today to offset their massive research expenditures.

But Googles not as big a newcomer to the field as you might imagine. Its quantum ambitions go all the way back to at least 2005-2006, when its AI division began working on algorithms designed to run on D-Wave quantum computing chips.

Eventually, the partnership would pay off and, in 2009, D-Wave and Google demonstrated quantum speedup for an image classification algorithm.

Fast-forward to 2022 and Googles managed to build at least three gate-based quantum processors of its own, demonstrated a new phase of matter (time crystals),and supposedly achieved quantum supremacy. Not bad for a company most people wouldnt associate with the field of quantum physics.

In fact, if you take a look at the whole picture, its clear that Google or, to be more accurate, its parent company Alphabet has its sights set on being the worlds premiere quantum computing organization.

Weve seen this kind of focus before when the company pivoted from mobile-first to AI-firstin 2016. And, arguably, Googles managed to nab the top spot among US AI companies in the time since.

Googles taken the same tried-and-true approach to building out its quantum ambitions. And, based on recent developments, it appears as though the Mountain View companys long-term plans are starting to come into focus.

Googles working with institutions ranging from NASA to Stanford to develop the quantum computing systems of the future. Its work demonstrating quantum advantage in gate-based quantum systems and the aforementioned time crystals breakthrough has cemented it as a stalwart member of the quantum physics world.

But research at the edge is hard to monetize.Thatswhy Microsoftrecently partnered upwithPasqal to round out its cloud-based quantum access offerings while it continues to research its far out topographical qubit ideas.

And D-Wave spent decades developing useful quantum computers capable of solving problems right away before it finally began researching futuristic gate-based systems in earnest.

Even IBM, Googles closest running mate in the research field among big tech outfits, has prioritized cloud access for business clients over its own monumental research efforts.

Based on everything weve seen, Googles as capable of fielding a functioning quantum-as-a-service paradigm as any other player in the field. And it may even be ahead of the pack when it comes to the race towards quantum advantage a quantum computer capable of surpassing every supercomputer on the planet.

In fact Google Quantum AI, which was founded in partnership with NASAs quantum labs, believes itll have a gate-based quantum computer capable of quantum advantage within the next decade.

Of course the competition IBM, Microsoft, and D-Wave have all made similar claims. And that makes this one of the most potentially-lucrative races in technology history.

As weve argued, IBMs off to a head start and Microsoft looks poised to dominate this market in a matter of a few years. But Googles got a few aces up its sleeves that could shake everything up.

Parent company Alphabet recently starbursted its SandboxAQ division into its own company, now a Google sibling. Its unclear exactly what SandboxAQ intends to do now that its spun out, but its positioned as a quantum-and-AI-as-a-service company. We expect itll begin servicing business clients in partnership with Google in the very near-term.

And, in doing so, Google will shore up its short-term quantum endeavors in much the same way Microsoft has recently. The major difference here is that Alphabet controls both Google and SandboxAQ, whereas Microsoft can cut its Pasqal partnership if the tide changes.

Itll be interesting to see the likes of Alphabet and Microsoft spar over future government contracts for quantum services. Where Microsoft tends to outperform Google in the bidding arena, Big G already has close ties to NASA and is intrinsically involved in its quantum ambitions for the US space program.

At the end of the day, Googles betting it all on its research arms covering a lot of ground over the next ten years. If time crystals and the companys other gate-based quantum computing research veins dont pan out, it could end up lagging too far behind the competition to matter.

Neurals take: everything weve seen in the past five years tells us the exact opposite is likely to happen.

We can safely assume we havent seen the last of Googles quantum computing research breakthroughs, and that tells us we could very well be living in the moments right before the slow-and-steady tortoise starts to make up ground on the speedy hare.

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Google wants to win the quantum computing race by being the tortoise, not the hare - The Next Web