President-elect Donald Trump joined SoftBank Group chief executive Masayoshi Son to announce plans by the Japanese company to invest $100 billion in US projects over the next four years.
Mr Trump announced the planned investment on Monday at his Mar-a-Lago resort with Mr Son at his side, along with Howard Lutnick, head of investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and Mr Trump’s pick for commerce secretary.
“He’s doing this because he feels very optimistic about our country,” Mr Trump said. He said that since his election, people have expressed interest in “coming in with tremendous amounts of money”.
The investments by SoftBank, Mr Trump said, are “a monumental demonstration of confidence in America’s future”.
Mr Son said he wanted to “celebrate the great victory of president Trump” and that he will “bring the world into peace again”.
“I am truly excited to make this happen,” he said.
After the president-elect noted the $100 billion was double an investment pledge Mr Son made in 2016 on the eve of Mr Trump's first administration, the technology mogul said he was doubling down. Mr Trump, appearing to joke, asked him at the microphone if he would double the investment again: “Would you make it $200 billion?”
He has in the past announced deals with companies overseas with much fanfare, although some companies in the end failed to deliver on those promised investments.
Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese company best known for producing Apple iPhones, won Mr Trump's praise after announcing plans in 2017 to build a $10 billion complex that would employ 13,000 people in a small town to the south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But Foxconn's investment has been scaled back to a fraction of that after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Monday's announcement, however, is a win for Mr Trump, who has used the weeks since the election to promote his policies, negotiate with foreign leaders and try to strike deals.
He had already threatened steep tariffs for Mexico and Canada, which prompted a visit from Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a call with Mexico's President, Claudia Sheinbaum. In a post on his Truth Social site last week, Mr Trump said anyone making a $1 billion investment in the US “will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all environmental approvals”.
SoftBank was founded in 1981 by Mr Son, a brash entrepreneur who studied at the University of California, Berkeley. SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together through its capital venture fund.
The company's investment portfolio includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba and artificial intelligence company Nvidia. Earlier this year, it joined a partnership with Saudi Arabia to build a robot factory in Riyadh.
After Mr Trump won the White House the first time in 2016, he met Mr Son before taking office. Mr Son then announced plans to create 50,000 jobs and invest $50 billion in US start-ups, which Mr Trump celebrated on social media, saying it would never have happened if he had not won the election.
Not all investments have panned out. The most notorious was Softbank's massive stake in the office-sharing company WeWork which sought bankruptcy protection last year. It also invested in the failed robot pizza-making company Zume.
TECH%20SPECS%3A%20APPLE%20WATCH%20SERIES%209
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The biog
Favourite films: Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia
Favourite books: Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Good to be Great by Jim Collins
Favourite dish: Grilled fish
Inspiration: Sheikh Zayed's visionary leadership taught me to embrace new challenges.
Britain's travel restrictions
- A negative test 2 days before flying
- Complete passenger locator form
- Book a post-arrival PCR test
- Double-vaccinated must self-isolate
- 11 countries on red list quarantine
Results
2pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m, Winner: AF Thayer, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer).
2.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,200m, Winner: AF Sahwa, Nathan Crosse, Mohamed Ramadan.
3pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,000m, Winner: AF Thobor, Szczepan Mazur, Ernst Oertel.
3.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 2,000m, Winner: AF Mezmar, Szczepan Mazur, Ernst Oertel.
4pm: Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup presented by Longines (TB) Dh 200,000 (D) 1,700m, Winner: Galvanize, Nathan Cross, Doug Watson.
4.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 40,000 (D) 1,700m, Winner: Ajaj, Bernardo Pinheiro, Mohamed Daggash.
HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards, often by claiming their phone has been lost or stolen
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
2021 World Triathlon Championship Series
May 15: Yokohama, Japan
June 5: Leeds, UK
June 24: Montreal, Canada
July 10: Hamburg, Germany
Aug 17-22: Edmonton, Canada (World Triathlon Championship Final)
Nov 5-6 : Abu Dhabi, UAE
Date TBC: Chengdu, China
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.
It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.
There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.
In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.
It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl, 48V hybrid
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 450Nm
Price: Dh359,000
On sale: now
The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
