A Nepalese mountain guide has broken his own record for the most summits of the world's highest peak.
Kami Rita, 51, a Sherpa, successfully scaled Mount Everest on Friday. It was the veteran mountaineer's 25th trip to the peak of the mountain.
Rita is also one of the first climbers to reach the new altitude – 0.86 metres higher – of the world's highest mountain. It was officially changed last year, after Nepal and China jointly announced an updated height of 8,848.86 metres.
Joined by 11 other Sherpas, all Nepalese, Rita and his team were tasked with fixing ropes on the mountain's icy passes to allow other climbers to attempt to reach the summit of Everest later this month.
As part of a team from Seven Summit Treks, under the management of Expedition Operators of Nepal, the Sherpas reached the summit of the 50-million-year-old mountain at 6pm on Friday.
"I may have achieved my lifelong dream of climbing Everest for the 25th time, but there is much more to go. This marks the beginning of a new era," Rita wrote on Instagram.
The Sherpa has been climbing Everest for 27 years, having first ascended in 1994. On Saturday, he wrote on Facebook that he and the team had made it successfully back to base camp.
Nicknamed Thapke, Rita has a Guinness World Record for the most summits of Everest, which he was awarded on May 21, 2019, after tackling the mountain for the 24th time. That achievement came less than a week after his 23rd summit of Everest on May 15, 2019.
The global pandemic has meant the mountaineer had to wait two years to be able to make his 25th record-breaking summit attempt. With the ropes now in place, however, the 2021 summit route is officially open.
Mount Everest was closed to climbers last year because of coronavirus. This year, Nepal has issued a limited number of climbing permits for those hoping to summit the peak. To date, more than 400 permits have been issued to foreigners planning to climb Everest's southern side.
The north side, which is located in China, remains largely restricted, with only a handful of permits being issued and strict Covid-19 testing measures in place.
Bahraini prince eyes Everest summit
Among the mountaineers hoping to scale the world's highest summit this year is Bahraini Prince Mohamed Hamad Mohamed Al Khalifa.
The royal is part of a team of 16 climbers and 30 Sherpa guides planning to reach the mountain's peak.
Prince Mohamed has already summited Mount Manaslu (8,163 metres) and Mount Lobuche (6,119 metres) in the Himalayas, during the pandemic. The outdoor enthusiast transported 2,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to Nepal in March.
Covid-19 on the world's highest mountain
The pandemic has also reached Mount Everest. Last week, mountaineers and authorities at Everest base camp confirmed to the BBC that they had seen a rising number of climbers with Covid-19 symptoms and an increase in positive tests.
Nepalese authorities have not verified the information, but the country is battling a second wave of infections. Kathmandu Valley and several other districts are currently under lockdown to try to slow the spread of the virus.
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
The biog
Name: Capt Shadia Khasif
Position: Head of the Criminal Registration Department at Hatta police
Family: Five sons and three daughters
The first female investigator in Hatta.
Role Model: Father
She believes that there is a solution to every problem
Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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.”
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
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Tuesday results:
- Singapore bt Malaysia by 29 runs
- UAE bt Oman by 13 runs
- Hong Kong bt Nepal by 3 wickets
Final:
Thursday, UAE v Hong Kong
The Freedom Artist
By Ben Okri (Head of Zeus)
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Bookshops: A Reader's History by Jorge Carrión (translated from the Spanish by Peter Bush),
Biblioasis
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
