Britain's first Yemeni MP, Abtisam Mohamed, hit back at tech billionaire Elon Musk's comments on social media over the far right threat, which saw him claim “civil war is inevitable” in the UK.
Ms Mohamed, who was born in Yemen and came to the UK as a child, represents the South Yorkshire constituency of Sheffield, which is just kilometres away from riots which broke out in Rotherham at the weekend, and has seen first-hand the destruction being caused.
Mr Musk had hit out at Prime Minster Keir Starmer on his social media platform X saying: “Shouldn’t you be concerned about attacks on *all* communities?” in response to Mr Starmer's address to the nation that he would not tolerate attacks on mosques or on Muslim communities.
It has led Ms Mohamed to defend the government's stance and she responded to him on X saying: “We are rightly concerned about the current *actual* attacks on mosques and Muslims.”
An immigration centre in her constituency has been identified by far right activists as a target, where a source told The National staff were “very concerned and worried” about the situation.
On Sunday, Mr Musk wrote that a British “civil war” was inevitable.
“Use of language such as a 'civil war' is in no way acceptable,” said justice minister Heidi Alexander, branding Mr Musk's comments “deeply irresponsible”.
“We are seeing police officers being seriously injured, buildings set alight, and so I really do think that everyone who has a platform should be exercising their power responsibly,” she told Times Radio.
On Tuesday, Mr Musk continued to goad Mr Starmer and posted a cartoon clip of a person being executed in an electric chair alongside the comment: “In 2030 for making a Facebook comment that the UK government didn’t like.”
He then badgered him with images of grooming gangs asking if this was still taking place and then commenting on the first riot arrests over a social media post encouraging members of the public to protest outside a hotel.
“Arrested for making comments on Facebook! Is this Britain or the Soviet Union?,” Mr Musk wrote.
Director of think tank the Counter Extremism Project, Hans-Jakob Schindler told The National Mr Musk was being irresponsible.
“The statement of Elon Musk that 'civil war is inevitable' is a perfect example of the complete lack of responsibility of the owner of one of the key [social media] platforms,” he said.
“Rather than trying to minimise the damage that his platform is currently inflicting on British society, Mr Musk seems to prefer pushing his personal political agenda.
“The damaging effects of the dissemination and amplification of mis- and disinformation and violence-orientated extremist narratives by social media platforms and messenger services, including X, currently on display in the UK must lead to a fundamental re-evaluation of the regulatory approach towards this industry.”
Riots by anti-immigrant demonstrators have spread across England following the murder of three children at a Taylor Swift-themed dance party in Southport, north-west England, on Monday last week.
They have been fuelled by online disinformation that the stabbing suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker. He is 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, who was born in Britain.
The rioters have attacked mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers, forcing the government to provide emergency security to Islamic places of worship.
A senior Labour MP told The National that Mr Musk’s tweets on the “civil war” gripping Britain were “disgraceful” and irresponsible coming from a person of his global influence.
“He is someone in a position of power with a huge following yet he lacks total responsibility saying things like that,” said Afzal Khan, who is a Muslim.
“It just doesn't help anyone and is nowhere near the truth as well,” said the Manchester MP. “The truth is that the overwhelming number of people, of whatever background, race or creed, are good British citizens and very decent people.”
He added that it was the responsibility of social media companies to ensure that “they specifically put a stop to the false information which is being pedalled” adding “you can't just simply make profits”.
Mr Starmer's representative said Monday there was “no justification” for the comment.
Technology Minister Peter Kyle met representatives from TikTok, Meta, Google and X on Monday and warned that social media users spreading misinformation will have “nowhere to hide”.
Palestine and Israel - live updates
The Light of the Moon
Director: Jessica M Thompson
Starring: Stephanie Beatriz, Michael Stahl-David
Three stars
World Cup final
Who: France v Croatia
When: Sunday, July 15, 7pm (UAE)
TV: Game will be shown live on BeIN Sports for viewers in the Mena region
Monster Hunter: World
Capcom
PlayStation 4, Xbox One
FA Cup quarter-final draw
The matches will be played across the weekend of 21 and 22 March
Sheffield United v Arsenal
Newcastle v Manchester City
Norwich v Derby/Manchester United
Leicester City v Chelsea
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.”
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
