For months, the German elections have been seen as a bump in the road which, once passed, would drive out Europe's listless mood, allowing the youthful president of France, Emmanuel Macron, to revive the lost spirit of integration.
The election has, in fact, turned out to be more of an Alp than a bump. On Sunday, Angela Merkel was re-elected as chancellor for a fourth term, but with a reduced majority and more than 80 members of the Eurosceptic, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party in parliament.
She will be busy coalition-building for at least two months and no doubt inward-looking rather than engaged in grand plans.
Mr Macron is fully aware of the hike that Mrs Merkel has to undertake to re-establish herself. But he appears undaunted.
On Tuesday, he gave a 100-minute speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris to set out his vision for a rejuvenated Europe.
Reporters counted no fewer than 23 items on his wish list. The speech was so long that some TV news channels gave up on the live broadcast before the end.
At a time when speakers are told that an audience can remember no more than two things from a speech, this was certainly an act of defiance. Cynics saw the breadth of his vision as a way to hide the fact that what he really wants to achieve – a radically deeper integration of economies that use the euro – has become all but impossible under the likely coalition that Mrs Merkel will have to put together.
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He did say one very resonant phrase, however, and that is that "the sea walls behind which Europe has thrived have gone".
The only way forward, he said, was through a “sovereign” Europe, which sounds like a super-state. But what did he mean?
An answer came the next day with the announcement that the two leading European makers of high-speed trains, Siemens of Germany and Alstom of France, were to merge to create a “new European champion” in the rail industry.
This is no minor development. The two companies have been in fierce competition but now accept that the continent is not big enough for the two rival firms. They have to join forces against what Siemens boss Joe Kaeser called a "dominant player in Asia", a reference to the Chinese giant of high-speed rail, CRRC Corporation.
Officially, the merged company will have equal partnership between Siemens and Alstom and will be based in the Paris region.
In France, however, it is seen as the likely demise of a great industrial champion, a pioneer of the original high-speed TGV train, which has been nurtured and defended by the French state for decades.
Alstom was rescued from bankruptcy by the state in 2004. Last year, the government spent €500 million (Dh2.2 billion) ordering high-speed trains that the railways did not need to prevent a historic factory closing down.
Mr Macron, a former investment banker, has had enough of wasteful national champions and sees the logic of consolidation. By having the French state step aside and allowing the merger, he had ditched decades of industrial policy – or centuries, if you go back to the time of Louis XIV.
For him, this is a down payment on his vision of a sovereign Europe. Unsurprisingly, others see a more parochial issue. Eric Woerth, a former French labour minister, asked: "will the TGV now be German?", a sentiment echoed in newspapers and social media.
In commercial terms, the logic for creating one European champion is clear. China’s CRRC is said to be able to outspend the Europeans by a factor of seven on research and development. A country where you could still see working steam trains in the 1980s now has the world’s largest network of high-speed rail, capable of producing rolling stock faster and more cheaply than Germany and Japan.
Its experience in building railways through China's different climates and landscapes makes it well-prepared to carry out the government's Belt and Road initiative to turn the byways of Central Asia, where Bactrian camels used to tread, into high-speed corridors.
If it comes to fruition, the project will link up Central and South Asia to the Middle East and then all the way to Europe. With much of the high-speed network in China already built, CRRC needs export markets to soak up its spare capacity.
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This is not the first European champion. In the 1960s, European aerospace companies banded together to create Airbus to challenge the dominant US corporations. But at its origin, Airbus was a government-led project with France at its heart.
Today’s national champions are commercial and the logic of the market may slowly throttle the Alstom component.
This is what Mr Macron means when he says “the sea walls behind which Europe has thrived have gone”. At some cost to his domestic popularity, he is showing how he sees the future of Europe.
And what about Germany? Mrs Merkel will first need to settle anxieties in her own party over its poor showing. German taxpayers are not keen on Mr Macron's vision of eurozone integration if it means they are on the hook to bail out less successful countries. Her presumed coalition partners, the Free Democrats, are adamant that any eurozone budget will be symbolic rather than a game-changer.
The chancellor will need to keep the increasingly Eurosceptic governments in Poland and Hungary aligned with the European project, while managing Italy and Spain, the first weakened by rising populism and the second by Catalan separatism.
The problem with European politics is that everywhere, mainstream parties have been weakened by insurgents – now in Germany, which was previously thought immune to the contagion, and, of course, in France, where Mr Macron is, himself, an insurgent. This is a difficult time for politicians to have visions. Maybe it is only the big corporations who can – and indeed must – scan the horizon.
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Best Foreign Language Film nominees
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
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The biog
Mission to Seafarers is one of the largest port-based welfare operators in the world.
It provided services to around 200 ports across 50 countries.
They also provide port chaplains to help them deliver professional welfare services.
Key products and UAE prices
iPhone XS
With a 5.8-inch screen, it will be an advance version of the iPhone X. It will be dual sim and comes with better battery life, a faster processor and better camera. A new gold colour will be available.
Price: Dh4,229
iPhone XS Max
It is expected to be a grander version of the iPhone X with a 6.5-inch screen; an inch bigger than the screen of the iPhone 8 Plus.
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iPhone XR
A low-cost version of the iPhone X with a 6.1-inch screen, it is expected to attract mass attention. According to industry experts, it is likely to have aluminium edges instead of stainless steel.
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The Ashes
Results
First Test, Brisbane: Australia won by 10 wickets
Second Test, Adelaide: Australia won by 120 runs
Third Test, Perth: Australia won by an innings and 41 runs
Fourth Test: Melbourne: Drawn
Fifth Test: Australia won by an innings and 123 runs
CHINESE GRAND PRIX STARTING GRID
1st row
Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
2nd row
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes-GP)
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
3rd row
Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing)
Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing)
4th row
Nico Hulkenberg (Renault)
Sergio Perez (Force India)
5th row
Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault)
Romain Grosjean (Haas)
6th row
Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
Esteban Ocon (Force India)
7th row
Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren)
8th row
Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso)
Sergey Sirotkin (Williams)
9th row
Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso)
Lance Stroll (Williams)
10th row
Charles Leclerc (Sauber)
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
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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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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
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