Cartoon for May 8, 2023

• Remittance charges will be tackled by blockchain

• UAE's monumental and risky Mars Mission to inspire future generations, says minister

• Could the UAE drive India's economy?

• News has a bright future and the UAE is at the heart of it

• Architecture is over - here's cybertecture

• The National announces Future of News journalism competition

• Round up: Experts share their visions of the world to come

• Alistair Burt: Despite Brexit, Britain can remain a world power
• Sam Williams: Departure is influenced by its sense of place

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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Dr Nawal Al-Hosany: Why more women should be on the frontlines of climate action

Samar Elmnhrawy: How companies in the Middle East can catch up on gender equality

The National Editorial: Is there much to celebrate on International Women's Day 2021?

Justin Thomas: Challenge the notion that 'men are from Mars, women are from Venus'

BEST FILM

• 1917 - Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Sam Mendes, Jayne-Ann Tenggren
• THE IRISHMAN - Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
• JOKER - Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD - David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE - Bong Joon-ho, Kwak Sin-ae

DIRECTOR

• 1917 - Sam Mendes
• THE IRISHMAN - Martin Scorsese
• JOKER - Todd Phillips
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD - Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE - Bong Joon-ho

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

• 1917 - Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
• BAIT - Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite
• FOR SAMA - Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
• ROCKETMAN - Dexter Fletcher, Adam Bohling, David Furnish, David Reid, Matthew Vaughn, Lee Hall
• SORRY WE MISSED YOU  - Ken Loach, Rebecca O’Brien, Paul Laverty
• THE TWO POPES - Fernando Meirelles, Jonathan Eirich, Dan Lin, Tracey Seaward, Anthony McCarten

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• THE FAREWELL - Lulu Wang, Daniele Melia
• FOR SAMA - Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
• PAIN AND GLORY - Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar
• PARASITE - Bong Joon-ho
• PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE - Céline Sciamma, Bénédicte Couvreur

LEADING ACTRESS

• JESSIE BUCKLEY - Wild Rose
• SCARLETT JOHANSSON - Marriage Story
• SAOIRSE RONAN - Little Women
• CHARLIZE THERON - Bombshell
• RENÉE ZELLWEGER - Judy

LEADING ACTOR

• LEONARDO DICAPRIO - Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood
• ADAM DRIVER - Marriage Story
• TARON EGERTON - Rocketman
• JOAQUIN PHOENIX - Joker
• JONATHAN PRYCE - The Two Popes

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• TOM HANKS - A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• ANTHONY HOPKINS - The Two Popes
• AL PACINO - The Irishman
• JOE PESCI - The Irishman
• BRAD PITT - Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• LAURA DERN - Marriage Story
• SCARLETT JOHANSSON - Jojo Rabbit
• FLORENCE PUGH - Little Women
• MARGOT ROBBIE - Bombshell
• MARGOT ROBBIE - Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• THE IRISHMAN - Steven Zaillian
• JOJO RABBIT - Taika Waititi
• JOKER - Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
• LITTLE WOMEN - Greta Gerwig
• THE TWO POPES - Anthony McCarten

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• BOOKSMART - Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman
• KNIVES OUT - Rian Johnson
• MARRIAGE STORY - Noah Baumbach
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD - Quentin Tarantino
• PARASITE - Han Jin Won, Bong Joon ho

DOCUMENTARY

• AMERICAN FACTORY - Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert
• APOLLO 11 - Todd Douglas Miller
• DIEGO MARADONA - Asif Kapadia
• FOR SAMA - Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
• THE GREAT HACK - Karim Amer, Jehane Noujaime

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

• BAIT - Mark Jenkin (Writer/Director), Kate Byers, Linn Waite (Producers)
• FOR SAMA - Waad al-Kateab (Director/Producer), Edward Watts (Director)
• MAIDEN - Alex Holmes (Director)
• ONLY YOU - Harry Wootliff (Writer/Director)
• RETABLO - Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio (Writer/Director)

ANIMATED FILM

• FROZEN 2 - Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho
• KLAUS - Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh
• A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON - Will Becher, Richard Phelan, Paul Kewley
• TOY STORY 4 - Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen

CASTING

• JOKER - Shayna Markowitz
• MARRIAGE STORY - Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD - Victoria Thomas
• THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD - Sarah Crowe
• THE TWO POPES - Nina Gold

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

• AWKWAFINA
• JACK LOWDEN
• KAITLYN DEVER
• KELVIN HARRISON JR.
• MICHEAL WARD

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• 1917 - Roger Deakins
• THE IRISHMAN - Rodrigo Prieto
• JOKER - Lawrence Sher
• LE MANS ’66 - Phedon Papamichael
• THE LIGHTHOUSE - Jarin Blaschke

EDITING

• THE IRISHMAN - Thelma Schoonmaker
• JOJO RABBIT - Tom Eagles
• JOKER - Jeff Groth
• LE MANS ’66 - Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD - Fred Raskin

COSTUME DESIGN

• THE IRISHMAN - Christopher Peterson, Sandy Powell
• JOJO RABBIT - Mayes C. Rubeo
• JUDY - Jany Temime
• LITTLE WOMEN - Jacqueline Durran
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD - Arianne Phillips

PRODUCTION DESIGN

• 1917 - Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales
• THE IRISHMAN - Bob Shaw, Regina Graves
• JOJO RABBIT - Ra Vincent, Nora Sopková
• JOKER - Mark Friedberg, Kris Moran
• ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD - Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh

SOUND

• 1917 - Scott Millan, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson
• JOKER - Tod Maitland, Alan Robert Murray, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic
• LE MANS ’66 - David Giammarco, Paul Massey, Steven A. Morrow, Donald Sylvester
• ROCKETMAN - Matthew Collinge, John Hayes, Mike Prestwood Smith, Danny Sheehan
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER - David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

ORIGINAL SCORE

• 1917 - Thomas Newman
• JOJO RABBIT - Michael Giacchino
• JOKER - Hildur Guđnadóttir
• LITTLE WOMEN - Alexandre Desplat
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER - John Williams

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

• 1917 - Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, Dominic Tuohy
• AVENGERS: ENDGAME - Dan Deleeuw, Dan Sudick
• THE IRISHMAN - Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Pablo Helman
• THE LION KING - Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, Adam Valdez
• STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER - Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy

MAKE UP & HAIR

• 1917 - Naomi Donne
• BOMBSHELL - Vivian Baker, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan
• JOKER - Kay Georgiou, Nicki Ledermann
• JUDY - Jeremy Woodhead
• ROCKETMAN - Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

BRITISH SHORT FILM

• AZAAR - Myriam Raja, Nathanael Baring
• GOLDFISH - Hector Dockrill, Harri Kamalanathan, Benedict Turnbull, Laura Dockrill
• KAMALI - Sasha Rainbow, Rosalind Croad
• LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL) - Carol Dysinger, Elena Andreicheva
• THE TRAP - Lena Headey, Anthony Fitzgerald

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

• GRANDAD WAS A ROMANTIC - Maryam Mohajer
• IN HER BOOTS - Kathrin Steinbacher
• THE MAGIC BOAT  - Naaman Azh

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

A tie between Atwood and Evaristo: the 2019 Booker Prize is controversial

Rushdie's retelling of 'Don Quixote' deserves its place on Booker shortlist

Book review: Tom Wolfe picks an argument with Darwin and Chomsky

Date Started: May 2015

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Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Laundry

Employees: 170

Funding: about $8m

Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures

Catchweight 82kg
Piotr Kuberski (POL) beat Ahmed Saeb (IRQ) by decision.

Women’s bantamweight
Corinne Laframboise (CAN) beat Cornelia Holm (SWE) by unanimous decision.

Welterweight
Omar Hussein (PAL) beat Vitalii Stoian (UKR) by unanimous decision.

Welterweight
Josh Togo (LEB) beat Ali Dyusenov (UZB) by unanimous decision.

Flyweight
Isaac Pimentel (BRA) beat Delfin Nawen (PHI) TKO round-3.

Catchweight 80kg​​​​​​​
Seb Eubank (GBR) beat Emad Hanbali (SYR) KO round 1.

Lightweight
Mohammad Yahya (UAE) beat Ramadan Noaman (EGY) TKO round 2.

Lightweight
Alan Omer (GER) beat Reydon Romero (PHI) submission 1.

Welterweight
Juho Valamaa (FIN) beat Ahmed Labban (LEB) by unanimous decision.

Featherweight
Elias Boudegzdame (ALG) beat Austin Arnett (USA) by unanimous decision.

Super heavyweight
Maciej Sosnowski (POL) beat Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) by submission round 1.

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Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.