Rudely awoken by clattering sounds from their front room, a young Austrian couple head downstairs to discover their home filled with uninvited guests playing computer games and rifling through their book cases.
The scene is from a mini-sitcom created for YouTube called The Hubers and by the end of the third episode, the intruders are replacing the couple's pictures, putting in meal requests and generally wrecking their home. The message is less than subtle: leave your door unlocked and you'll pay for it for life.
Created by Austria’s far-right Freedom party, the show is a political advertisement for this weekend’s elections and references the central planks of its programme: preventing the “Islamification” of Austria and promoting the rights of Austrian nationals over migrants. It plays into the concerns of the small central European nation which became a major transit hub during the 2015 migration crisis.
With each YouTube clip watched 1.6 million times, the message is proving to be a potent tactic in a campaign dominated by the themes of integration and immigration and is likely to see Heinz-Christian Strache emerge as leader of the second biggest party in Sunday’s poll and become part of the ruling coalition.
The result would mark a return to power for the party for the first time since 2005 during a short-lived and chaotic junior coalition role under its charismatic leader Jorg Haider, who died in a car crash in 2008.
After a period in the doldrums, Mr Strache’s party has emerged with an anti-immigration agenda that includes demands for strict controls on Muslim schools and kindergartens and a ban on handing out copies of the Koran in public places, according to his website.
The party was founded by former Nazis but has sought to leave its anti-Semitic past behind, expelling a series of party members for Hitler salutes and other breaches. The charismatic Mr Strache has said that Europe shares an enemy with Israel in political Islam.
Polls last week put his Freedom Party in second place on 27 per cent, behind the centre-right Austrian People’s Party on 34 per cent. The centre-left Social Democrats, whose leader Christian Kern is the country’s current leader, is predicted to be pushed down into third place.
Political analysts said that voting in Austria had been marked by a series of late swings, which could even make Freedom the largest party. "I think this is an election that's very difficult to predict," said political analyst Christoph Hofinger, whose company will provide election night forecasting for Austria's public broadcaster. "We might see some surprises on Sunday."
Whatever the outcome of the election, the success of the Freedom Party has pushed Austrian politics to the right. A Freedom Party candidate only narrowly lose in last year’s election for president, a largely ceremonial post.
Sebastian Kurz, the country’s foreign minister and new leader of the Austrian People’s Party, was behind a ‘burqa ban’ that came into force on October 1 and has adopted some of the policies of the far-right. Mr Kurz has also praised the leaders of Hungary for building a border fence to keep migrants out of EU territory
Success for the Freedom Party will reignite concerns about the rise of pro-nationalist, anti-immigration parties across Europe.
Fears were stoked by the UK’s vote to leave the European Union last year and the election of Donald Trump and only partially allayed by the victory of staunch pro-European Emmanuel Macron earlier this year.
Mr Hofinger said, however, that there was unlikely to be dramatic change if the Freedom Party was successful in the October 15 election. The Freedom party is likely to push its coalition partner to build closer links with Russia and to place even more roadblocks in the way of Turkey's ailing process to join the European Union, he said. "Not just to pause them, but to abort them," he told The National.
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
UFC%20FIGHT%20NIGHT%3A%20SAUDI%20ARABIA%20RESULTS
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Friday’s fixture
6.15pm: Al Wahda v Hatta
6.15pm: Al Dhafra v Ajman
9pm: Al Wasl v Baniyas
9pm: Fujairah v Sharjah
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MATCH DETAILS
Barcelona 0
Slavia Prague 0
Company profile
Name: Fruitful Day
Founders: Marie-Christine Luijckx, Lyla Dalal AlRawi, Lindsey Fournie
Based: Dubai, UAE
Founded: 2015
Number of employees: 30
Sector: F&B
Funding so far: Dh3 million
Future funding plans: None at present
Future markets: Saudi Arabia, potentially Kuwait and other GCC countries
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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.”
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%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Ethree%20three%20212.7kWh%20motors%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201%2C000bhp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E15%2C600Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERange%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20530km%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dh500%2C000%2B%20est%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Eearly%202023%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Richard Jewell
Director: Clint Eastwood
Stars: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Brandon Stanley
Two-and-a-half out of five stars
Profile Periscope Media
Founder: Smeetha Ghosh, one co-founder (anonymous)
Launch year: 2020
Employees: four – plans to add another 10 by July 2021
Financing stage: $250,000 bootstrap funding, approaching VC firms this year
Investors: Co-founders
Which honey takes your fancy?
Al Ghaf Honey
The Al Ghaf tree is a local desert tree which bears the harsh summers with drought and high temperatures. From the rich flowers, bees that pollinate this tree can produce delicious red colour honey in June and July each year
Sidr Honey
The Sidr tree is an evergreen tree with long and strong forked branches. The blossom from this tree is called Yabyab, which provides rich food for bees to produce honey in October and November. This honey is the most expensive, but tastiest
Samar Honey
The Samar tree trunk, leaves and blossom contains Barm which is the secret of healing. You can enjoy the best types of honey from this tree every year in May and June. It is an historical witness to the life of the Emirati nation which represents the harsh desert and mountain environments
RESULTS
6.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh82.500 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Meshakel, Royston Ffrench (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
7.05pm Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,400m
Winner Gervais, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7.40pm Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (Turf) 2,410m
Winner Global Heat, Pat Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
8.15pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner Firnas, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.50pm UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (D) 1,600m
Winner Rebel’s Romance, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
9.25pm Dubai Trophy (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (T) 1,200m
Winner Topper Bill, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
10pm Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (T) 1,400m
Winner Wasim, Mickael Barzalona, Ismail Mohammed.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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