منظمة القات العالمية World Qat Organization

  Small business   loan approval percentages   at big banks ($10 billion+ in assets) climbed slightly from 13.4% in April from 13.5% in May 2021, according to the latest   Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index . Small banks’ approvals jumped higher from 18.2% in April, to 18.7% in May. Bank vault (Photo by © Viviane Moos/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)   CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES Loan approvals by small banks rose 0.3% as banks start to assess the favorable economic conditions that are beginning to emerge as lockdowns ease and more and more people receive a Covid-19 vaccine. Pent-up demand from consumers is an attractive narrative for small business owners to use as part of their justification for applying for financing. Banks, especially smaller community and regional institutions, are taking notice of this trend as they begin to open up their lending operations to the post-pandemic reality. Next month’s lending figures will be more significant now that the fed...

The Law Society has faced a storm of online mockery and criticism after it showcased its guide for the use of pronouns in the workplace. While some found the initiative ridiculous, others blasted it for not being inclusive enough. The law association, which represents and governs solicitors in the jurisdiction of England and Wales, has been actively participating in the virtual celebration of Pride Month, sharing its latest contribution on social media late on Saturday. The group showcased its supposedly inclusive guide on how to ‘properly’ use pronouns in the workplace to avoid offending anyone. “We frequently, and likely subconsciously, interpret or ‘read’ a person’s gender based on their outward appearance and expression, and ‘assign’ a pronoun,” the guide reads. “However, our inference as to that person’s gender identity may not be correct.” The group gave a series of tips on how to avoid this potentially offensive behaviour, providing examples of what a truly woke solicitor should...

Facebook has pledged to provide a more detailed explanation of what constitutes satire on its platform, after the company’s oversight board ruled that a meme commenting on the Armenian genocide was wrongfully removed. The social media giant said it was committed to developing a “new satire framework” which will be used to assess facetious or sarcastic content that may be flagged as suspected hate speech. Information will also be added to the site’s community standards clarifying how satire factors into “context-specific decisions” about problematic content.  The company already has a “satire exception” to its rules prohibiting hate speech, but the policy “is currently not communicated to users,” Facebook acknowledged.  The platform underscored that it takes the metaphysics of satire extremely seriously, noting that it had repeatedly engaged with “academic experts, journalists, comedians, representatives of satirical publications, and advocates for freedom of expression” to dis...

China has administered more than a billion Covid-19 shots since the start of its vaccination program, health authorities have said, as the country moves closer to meeting an ambitious target set for the end of the month. The announcement by China’s National Health Commission means that Beijing is responsible for more than a third of all doses administered worldwide. According to an estimate by the AFP news agency, the number of shots given out globally surpassed 2.5 billion on Friday.  Beijing hopes to fully vaccinate 40% of the country’s nearly 1.4 billion people by the end of June. Since most vaccines used by China require two doses, it’s unclear what percentage of the population is already fully vaccinated.  The Asian nation began vaccinating high-risk individuals as early as July last year, later expanding the initiative. The vaccination of priority groups was completed in February, with the wider population participating in the mass inoculation drive thereafter.  Lik...