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Qatar and Belgium have taken significant steps to bolster their economic ties, as highlighted during the Qatar-Belgium Business Meeting in Doha. The event, spearheaded by Qatar Chamber and 'hub.brussels', brought together key figures from both nations to discuss investment opportunities across various sectors. With a trade volume reaching QAR 4.6 billion last year, the meeting underscored the potential for further growth in bilateral relations, particularly in healthcare, education, and technology.
Meanwhile, Qatar is set to make a splash at the Arabian Travel Market 2025 in Dubai, showcasing its rich tourism offerings. Visit Qatar's pavilion, spanning 600 square meters, will feature interactive experiences highlighting the country's cultural heritage and modern attractions. This participation aligns with Qatar's National Tourism Strategy, aiming to foster sector collaboration and attract global investment.
The enduring partnership between Qatar and the United Kingdom serves as a testament to Qatar's role as a reliable ally on the global stage. Over the past decade, the relationship has deepened, with Qatar's investments in the UK spanning retail, hospitality, and construction, contributing significantly to the UK economy. This partnership exemplifies the mutual benefits of international cooperation and the importance of nurturing such alliances.
As Qatar continues to expand its global footprint, its efforts in strengthening economic, tourism, and diplomatic ties reflect its commitment to fostering international collaboration. Whether through business meetings, tourism exhibitions, or strategic partnerships, Qatar is positioning itself as a key player in the global arena, offering opportunities for growth and mutual prosperity.

A major outage at Amazon Web Services has disrupted operations for numerous popular applications and platforms globally, affecting millions of users. The cloud computing infrastructure failure began early Monday morning, with users reporting widespread issues accessing services including Snapchat, Duolingo, Zoom, and various gaming platforms. Amazon confirmed it was investigating increased error rates and latency across multiple AWS services, though the company has not yet identified the root cause of the system failure.
The disruption appears to have originated with servers hosted in the US-EAST-1 region, according to initial reports. This triggered a cascade effect that impacted AWS infrastructure supporting millions of websites and applications worldwide. Downdetector, a platform that monitors service outages, reported receiving over four million problem reports in a single morning—more than double the typical weekly volume—indicating the scale of the disruption across affected services.
Among the services experiencing significant operational problems are communication platforms like Zoom, Signal, and Slack; gaming services including Roblox, Fortnite, and PlayStation Network; social media applications such as Snapchat; and financial services from banks including Lloyds and Bank of Scotland. Streaming platforms Prime Video and Crunchyroll, along with educational tool Duolingo and design platform Canva, have also been affected by the cloud service failure.
The outage has manifested differently across regions, with Amazon's own websites remaining operational in Europe while still experiencing service-specific errors. AWS engineers are actively working to mitigate the issues and restore normal operations. The company has committed to providing regular updates as they work to resolve the widespread service disruption that has highlighted the internet's heavy reliance on cloud infrastructure providers.