US President Joe Biden's re-election campaign is in further disarray after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Even before Saturday's shooting, Mr Biden's bid to stay in the White House was facing an existential crisis, with fellow Democrats calling on the President, 81, to step aside after a poor debate performance and subsequent gaffes underscored his apparent cognitive decline.
Now Mr Biden must address the split screen of his own seemingly feeble physical and mental state contrasted with Trump's bloodied and defiant pose after a bullet nicked his ear at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Further complicating Mr Biden's messaging is the fact that his campaign has had to pull many of the negative advertisements that had been planned to attack Trump.
Mr Biden has cited Trump's refusal to accept the results of the 2020 elections, his involvement in riot at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and his overall rhetoric to make the case to the American people that Trump is a would-be dictator.
The Biden campaign had invested tens of millions of dollars in advertisements attacking Trump as a threat to democracy, but observers say that argument has lost resonance with voters now that the former president has become the victim of the most extreme form of anti-democratic assault.
The President must now overcome the “common perception that he's weak, or the weaker of the two candidates”, John Feehery, a Republican strategist, told The National.
Mr Feehery said the argument that Trump is a threat to democracy had failed to land with many voters even before the shooting, as it resonated more with wealthy liberal voters than everyday Americans who care more about the kitchen table and economic issues.
Experts suggest Mr Biden could continue to portray himself as a “good steward for America” but move away from attacks on Trump and focus on issues such as the economy and reproductive rights.
But anything Mr Biden says this week may be largely drowned out by the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Trump is expected to be feted as a hero as he is officially nominated as the party's presidential candidate.
“I think that this week for [Biden], he has to recalibrate and he is not going to win it this week, he's not going to make the comeback this week,” Mr Feehery said.
“So he's got to just give the Republicans their time and apply the strategies from there.”
A quiet mutiny that had been gathering momentum among Democrats to pressure Mr Biden to step down appears to have quelled since the shooting but many remain unhappy with the President and see him as having little chance of beating Trump in the November 5 election.
In a debate with Trump last month, Mr Biden gave a widely criticised performance in which he frequently failed to finish sentences, muddled words and looked ill.
At a Nato summit last week, he referred to his own deputy, Kamala Harris, as “Vice President Trump” and mixed up the names of the Russian and Ukrainian presidents.
Mr Biden was due to give an interview to NBC News that would be broadcast late on Monday. Biden officials told US media the President's campaign would be stepped up again after the broadcast, with a message that would contrast his vision for the future with that of Trump, who frequently speaks in apocalyptic terms about the state of the US.
"While I think the messaging needs to be reshaped or reworded in some way, the core piece of truth there does not change," Democratic strategist Alyssa Batchelor told The National.
"President Biden did a really great job of addressing the nation and addressing that we solve our differences at the ballot box, not with political violence."
Ms Batchelor said it was unlikely for the shooting or its aftermath to have a lasting impact on the vote in November, amid a constantly evolving and unpredictable news cycle.
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World Cricket League Division 2
In Windhoek, Namibia - Top two teams qualify for the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe, which starts on March 4.
UAE fixtures
Thursday February 8, v Kenya; Friday February 9, v Canada; Sunday February 11, v Nepal; Monday February 12, v Oman; Wednesday February 14, v Namibia; Thursday February 15, final
Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
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Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: N2 Technology
Founded: 2018
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Startups
Size: 14
Funding: $1.7m from HNIs
SHAITTAN
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Where to apply
Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020.
Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.
The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
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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.
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- 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
- 2nd Test Thursday-Monday at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
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Company info
Company name: Entrupy
Co-founders: Vidyuth Srinivasan, co-founder/chief executive, Ashlesh Sharma, co-founder/chief technology officer, Lakshmi Subramanian, co-founder/chief scientist
Based: New York, New York
Sector/About: Entrupy is a hardware-enabled SaaS company whose mission is to protect businesses, borders and consumers from transactions involving counterfeit goods.
Initial investment/Investors: Entrupy secured a $2.6m Series A funding round in 2017. The round was led by Tokyo-based Digital Garage and Daiwa Securities Group's jointly established venture arm, DG Lab Fund I Investment Limited Partnership, along with Zach Coelius.
Total customers: Entrupy’s customers include hundreds of secondary resellers, marketplaces and other retail organisations around the world. They are also testing with shipping companies as well as customs agencies to stop fake items from reaching the market in the first place.
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Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
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Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
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- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
List of officials:
Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
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