Princess Charlotte celebrates sixth birthday as new picture released by royal family

Britain's royal family released a photograph on Saturday of a smiling Princess Charlotte, one of Queen Elizabeth's great-grandchildren, the day before the princess celebrates her sixth birthday.

Charlotte is fourth in line to the British throne and is the only daughter of Prince William, the queen's grandson, and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge.

Scroll through the gallery below of Princess Charlotte over the years:

In the picture, Charlotte is shown wearing a blue dress with a pink floral pattern and pink buttons, and she stands with her arms stretched out and her hair falling over her shoulders, smiling at the camera. The dress is by London designer Rachel Riley who has dressed the young royal and her siblings in the past.

The photograph was taken by the Duchess of Cambridge, a keen amateur photographer and a patron of The Royal Photographic Society, on Saturday in Norfolk, eastern England, where the family currently live.

"Wishing Princess Charlotte a very happy sixth birthday today," the royal family posted on its social media pages, along with the image.

It's not yet clear how Princess Charlotte will celebrate her birthday. In 2020, on her fifth birthday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge shared pictures of Charlotte helping pack and deliver food parcels and homemade pasta to locals amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on Friday released a video to mark a decade since their wedding.

The highly stylised clip, by London filmmaker Will Warr, is set against the sound of gentle guitar strings, and showed the royals with their three children walking across a windswept beach, running through their expansive garden and toasting marshmallows over an open fire.

“Thank you to everyone for the kind messages on our wedding anniversary,” they wrote in a message accompanying the footage. “We are enormously grateful for the 10 years of support we have received in our lives as a family. W & C.”

The couple married in 2011 after an eight-year relationship that began while they were at university.

Charlotte was born in London on May 2, 2015, and is William and Kate's second child. Charlotte's elder brother, Prince George, was born in July 2013 and her younger brother, Prince Louis, was born in April 2018.

Scroll through the gallery below to see more of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge through the years:

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Prince William and Kate celebrate a decade of marriage with new photos

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Iftar programme at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding

Established in 1998, the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding was created with a vision to teach residents about the traditions and customs of the UAE. Its motto is ‘open doors, open minds’. All year-round, visitors can sign up for a traditional Emirati breakfast, lunch or dinner meal, as well as a range of walking tours, including ones to sites such as the Jumeirah Mosque or Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.

Every year during Ramadan, an iftar programme is rolled out. This allows guests to break their fast with the centre’s presenters, visit a nearby mosque and observe their guides while they pray. These events last for about two hours and are open to the public, or can be booked for a private event.

Until the end of Ramadan, the iftar events take place from 7pm until 9pm, from Saturday to Thursday. Advanced booking is required.

For more details, email openminds@cultures.ae or visit www.cultures.ae

High profile Al Shabab attacks

2010: A restaurant attack in Kampala Uganda kills 74 people watching a Fifa World Cup final football match.
2013: The Westgate shopping mall attack, 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers and four gunmen are killed.
2014: A series of bombings and shootings across Kenya sees scores of civilians killed.
2015: Four gunmen attack Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya and take over 700 students hostage, killing those who identified as Christian; 148 die and 79 more are injured.
2016: An attack on a Kenyan military base in El Adde Somalia kills 180 soldiers.
2017: A suicide truck bombing outside the Safari Hotel in Mogadishu kills 587 people and destroys several city blocks, making it the deadliest attack by the group and the worst in Somalia’s history.

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.”