Thirty seconds in to the car journey Astrid's brow is sweaty and her face is red. It is as red as a tomato and the car is like an oven slowly baking her. She starts to struggle in her car seat, trying to worm her way out of her straps, kicking her legs wildly. The air conditioning and fan are on their highest settings, but the cool air does not make it to the back of the car. Most of it is blocked by the front seats, while the few wisps of air that do make it quickly lose their cool. It is like throwing an ice cube into the desert and expecting it to bring the temperature down.
We make it back to the apartment block and park the car. The gauntlet from the car park to the door is all that remains. Astrid has very pale skin, which has an almost bluish tinge making it appear translucent at times. It is very delicate and not well suited to summer in the UAE. Even a few seconds on the blazing streets of Abu Dhabi and I feel, perhaps a tad melodramatically, that she will be scorched to a crisp. I put her hat on and head for the door of our building.
With the city's stifling heat comes an urge to flee for cooler climes. Initially, air conditioning provides some comfort and relief, but pretty quickly the processed air of these temperature-controlled zones takes on its own kind of oppressiveness. After spending the entire day inside, Astrid is bounding with pent-up energy. After spending almost a week inside with only a few trips outside, her eyes start to appear sunken and hollow.
I hear on the radio about six volunteers who are spending 18 months locked in a series of tunnels with no windows. The project aims to mimic a trip to Mars and investigate the effects of such isolation on the human mind and body. I start to think how the two or three months spent inside during the summer in Abu Dhabi must seem like such a long time for children. The effects of these cloistered experiences, while probably negligible, nevertheless remain largely undocumented.
So the case for a family exodus builds up, slowly and steadily mimicking the rising temperature that is its cause. It is looking more and more likely that Astrid and Lucy will return to the UK for about two months. They will miss the worst of the summer here and experience the best of the summer in the UK. I will miss them a lot, but it really is the only way to beat the heat.
Babies and toddlers do cute things. Most people have been conditioned in some way to acknowledge and respond to this cute behaviour. It seems hard-wired in us, an urge that endears our children to us and helps to develop the bond between us. In this steady stream of cuteness, there are exceptional moments; sudden gushes of cute behaviour that stand out and are therefore worthy of note. I experienced such a moment recently. Music was playing and Astrid was moving around to it. She was dancing. She was moving her body to the music, swaying and lurching, sometimes in time, sometimes out of time. The song changed to a more upbeat tune. Suddenly Astrid started to move her feet like a tap dancer. She quickly moved them up and down, laughing all the time, working herself into a frenzy. It was a spontaneous response to the music, all the more remarkable because it was unprompted. She does it all the time now, but it's still cute.
* Robert Carroll
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
J%20Street%20Polling%20Results
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The specs: Rolls-Royce Cullinan
Price, base: Dh1 million (estimate)
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 563hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 850Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 15L / 100km
The struggle is on for active managers
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The biog
Profession: Senior sports presenter and producer
Marital status: Single
Favourite book: Al Nabi by Jibran Khalil Jibran
Favourite food: Italian and Lebanese food
Favourite football player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Languages: Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and some Spanish
Website: www.liliane-tannoury.com
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
SPAIN SQUAD
Goalkeepers Simon (Athletic Bilbao), De Gea (Manchester United), Sanchez (Brighton)
Defenders Gaya (Valencia), Alba (Barcelona), P Torres (Villarreal), Laporte (Manchester City), Garcia (Manchester City), D Llorente (Leeds), Azpilicueta (Chelsea)
Midfielders Busquets (Barcelona), Rodri (Manchester City), Pedri (Barcelona), Thiago (Liverpool), Koke (Atletico Madrid), Ruiz (Napoli), M Llorente (Atletico Madrid)
Forwards: Olmo (RB Leipzig), Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Morata (Juventus), Moreno (Villarreal), F Torres (Manchester City), Traore (Wolves), Sarabia (PSG)
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
MO
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Results
Ashraf Ghani 50.64 per cent
Abdullah Abdullah 39.52 per cent
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar 3.85 per cent
Rahmatullah Nabil 1.8 per cent
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Tim Paine (captain), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner