From the Oklahoma bombing in 1995, the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre in 2018 and the attack on the US Capitol in 2021, home-grown extremism has become an increasing threat in the US.
Groups including QAnon, which promotes conspiracy theories, the Proud Boys, a men-only neo-fascist organisation, and Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia, became more visible following the Capitol riot, which has been denounced by the White House and the Justice Department as an act of domestic terrorism.
“On January 6, 2021, Americans witnessed an unprecedented attack against a core institution of our democracy: the US Congress,” the White House wrote in its strategy on domestic terrorism, released last June.
The document, the first in US history focused on domestic terrorism, addresses the transnational dimensions of white supremacist and other domestic terrorist violence and expands the scope of the federal government and law enforcement authorities in countering this threat.
But a year on from the January 6 attack, experts who follow US domestic extremism that current efforts are not enough, and that the more localised and entrenched these groups become, the more difficult they become to defeat.
Lorenzo Vidino, director of extremism programme at George Washington University, sees the current federal response to domestic extremism as lacking.
“The US government for the most part and for a long time has underestimated and overlooked the problem of domestic extremism,” Mr Vidino told The National.
He pointed to the heightened focus on extremist groups such as Al Qaeda after the September 11, 2001 attacks and ISIS later on, the entrenchment of some far-right groups in law enforcement and the military, and legal barriers as the main reasons behind the lag.
“We are seeing a number of people within law enforcement or the military who belong to some of these groups like the Oath Keepers that have sheriffs and deputies in their rank,” the expert said.
In the year since January 6, federal authorities have charged more than 700 people in connection to the riot at the Capitol. Prosecutors say the sprawling investigation is now the biggest probe in US history, both in terms of the number of defendants and the sheer quantity of evidence.
The extremism programme reported that 12 per cent of those facing charges have a military background.
Mr Vidino sees certain commonalities between domestic and foreign extremists, one of them being that the majority of the people involved in such groups tend to be men (87 per cent in the case of January 6), averaging between 30 and 40 years of age.
But unlike countering foreign extremism, the US government has a limited set of tools for going after domestic extremists.
Though Congress tends to be all in when it comes to pursuing foreign extremists, when it comes to laws allowing domestic surveillance or cracking down on communications between far-right group members, Mr Vidino says there is ample political resistance.
“The strategy is very much in its infancy … In the last two decades, bills to introduce domestic terrorism laws similar to those applied to foreign groups to domestic never made it [in Congress]," he said.
Even the White House document addressing domestic terrorism came under attack from both the right and left for threatening individual freedoms.
“It relies too heavily on law enforcement suspicion, investigation and policing of beliefs rather than actual conduct — violence or attempted violence,” the American Civil Liberties Union said in its criticism of the document.
Beyond the federal response, other experts are concerned that far-right extremism has become more resilient since January 6.
Colin Clarke, a senior research fellow at The Soufan Centre where he studies extremism, said the movement is now more locally focused and has adjusted to the post-Donald Trump era.
“We have seen a clear re-orientation of the far-right extremist threat in the US. Now that Trump is gone, there has been something of a shift to more of a grassroots movement, which is manifesting itself in threats to local school boards and more politicians running for local office that are resorting to extremist rhetoric,” Mr Clarke said.
Mr Trump frequently fanned the flames of far-right extremist conspiracies or looked the other way as racist and anti-Semitic attacks took place in Charlottesville and Pittsburgh.
Mr Clarke describes a more durable and evolved far-right extremist ecosystem, focused on community activism.
“It is now a much broader tent and includes not just anti-government and anti-authority extremists, but also conspiracy theorists and [anti-vaccination activists],” he said.
Steven Bannon, Mr Trump’s former aide who has been charged with contempt by the Department of Justice over the January 6 investigation, encouraged the far-right movement to pivot to local elections.
“We're going to take this back village by village … precinct by precinct,” Mr Bannon told his supporters in February, an investigation by ProPublica showed.
The movement has utilised the pandemic to promote anti-vaccine rallies and reject school safety restrictions.
“The pandemic has been an ideological godsend for the far right,” Mr Clarke said.
While Canada designated the Proud Boys a terrorist entity after the Capitol siege, it remains unlikely the US will follow suit, both Mr Clarke and Mr Vidino said.
Still, Mr Clarke sees a break in the national momentum for these groups.
“The Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers have likely been deterred by the arrests, charges in the insurrection and lawsuits, leading to financial concerns and threatening their viability,” he Clarke said.
Fixtures:
Wed Aug 29 – Malaysia v Hong Kong, Nepal v Oman, UAE v Singapore
Thu Aug 30 - UAE v Nepal, Hong Kong v Singapore, Malaysia v Oman
Sat Sep 1 - UAE v Hong Kong, Oman v Singapore, Malaysia v Nepal
Sun Sep 2 – Hong Kong v Oman, Malaysia v UAE, Nepal v Singapore
Tue Sep 4 - Malaysia v Singapore, UAE v Oman, Nepal v Hong Kong
Thu Sep 6 – Final
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
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.”
Superpower%20
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Coal Black Mornings
Brett Anderson
Little Brown Book Group
Company%20profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors. More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
TEAMS
EUROPE:
Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson
USA:
Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau ( 1 TBC)
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
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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
Her most famous song
Aghadan Alqak (Would I Ever Find You Again)?
Would I ever find you again
You, the heaven of my love, my yearning and madness;
You, the kiss to my soul, my cheer and
sadness?
Would your lights ever break the night of my eyes again?
Would I ever find you again?
This world is volume and you're the notion,
This world is night and you're the lifetime,
This world is eyes and you're the vision,
This world is sky and you're the moon time,
Have mercy on the heart that belongs to you.
Lyrics: Al Hadi Adam; Composer: Mohammed Abdel Wahab
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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1.
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United States
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2.
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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6.
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Canada
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7.
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Singapore
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8.
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Australia
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9.
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Saudi Arabia
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10.
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South Korea
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Fifa Club World Cup:
When: December 6-16
Where: Games to take place at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi and Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain
Defending champions: Real Madrid
'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
