The suspect in an apparent attempted shooting of former US president Donald Trump is a pro-Ukraine activist who allegedly sought to recruit volunteers to fight against Russia.
Ryan Routh has been widely identified in US media and details have emerged of a man who seemingly turned against the Republican candidate, having once supported him.
The 58-year-old is a roofing contractor who lived in North Carolina until 2018, when he moved to Hawaii, reports said. CNN reported that he has eight arrests on his record, apparently for minor offences.
He frequently posted on social media about the war in Ukraine and had a website where he sought to raise money and recruit volunteers to go to Kyiv to join the fight against the Russian invasion. He told The New York Times in March last year that he was seeking recruits to fight in Ukraine from Afghan soldiers who fled the Taliban.
AFP spoke to Mr Routh in Kyiv in late April 2022 while he was taking part in a demonstration in support of Ukrainians trapped in the port city of Mariupol.
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin is a terrorist, and he needs to be ended, so we need everybody from around the world to stop what they are doing and come here now,” he said at the time.
On April 21, he directed an X message to Elon Musk, in which he wrote: “I would like to buy a rocket from you. I wish to load it with a warhead for Putin's Black Sea mansion bunker to end him. Can you give me a price please.”
Voter records show Mr Routh registered as an unaffiliated voter in North Carolina in 2012, most recently casting his ballot in person during the state’s Democratic Party primary in March. Federal campaign finance records show that he made 19 donations of a total of $140 since 2019 using his Hawaii address to ActBlue, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates.
While living in Greensboro, North Carolina, Mr Routh had multiple run-ins with police, records show. He was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction, according to online North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records.
The records do not provide details about the case. But a report that year in Greensboro's News & Record newspaper says a man with the same name was arrested after a three-hour standoff with police. The report said he was pulled over during a traffic stop, put his hand on a gun and barricaded himself inside a roofing business. He owned the roofing company, according to state incorporation filings.
In June 2020, Mr Routh posted a message on X to tell Mr Trump he would win re-election if he issued an executive order for the Justice Department to prosecute police misconduct.
That year, he also posted in support of the Democratic presidential campaign of Tulsi Gabbard, then a member of Congress representing Hawaii, who has since left the party. He also posted in support of Bernie Sanders, another Democratic candidate, while mocking now-President Joe Biden, as “sleepy Joe”.
Mr Routh's social media posts suggest growing disillusionment with Mr Trump in recent years, while expressing support for Mr Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Earlier this year, he tagged Mr Biden in a post on X that said: “Your campaign should be called something like KADAF. Keep America democratic and free. Trumps should be MASA … make Americans slaves again master. DEMOCRACY is on the ballot and we cannot lose.”
The suspected gunman's son, Adam, spoke to Reuters at the hardware store where he works in Hawaii. He said he had not yet heard of the assassination attempt but said it was not something he believed his father would do.
Another son, Oran, told CNN: “I don't have any comment beyond a character profile of him as a loving and caring father … I don't know what's happened in Florida and I hope things have just been blown out of proportion.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The biog
Year of birth: 1988
Place of birth: Baghdad
Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany
Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading
'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Jawan
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Astroworld
Travis Scott
Grand Hustle/Epic/Cactus Jack
match info
Southampton 0
Arsenal 2 (Nketiah 20', Willock 87')
Red card: Jack Stephens (Southampton)
Man of the match: Rob Holding (Arsenal)
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
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.”
Third Test
Day 3, stumps
India 443-7 (d) & 54-5 (27 ov)
Australia 151
India lead by 346 runs with 5 wickets remaining
Netherlands v UAE, Twenty20 International series
Saturday, August 3 - First T20i, Amstelveen
Monday, August 5 – Second T20i, Amstelveen
Tuesday, August 6 – Third T20i, Voorburg
Thursday, August 8 – Fourth T20i, Vooryburg
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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