Whatever happens next as Joe Biden prepares to govern America come January 20, his defeat of an incumbent president has one unique and extraordinary element: it was enabled by women.
Four women, in fact. In no particular order, they are as follows: Mr Biden's running mate Kamala Devi Harris; Georgia Democratic Party voting rights activist Stacey Abrams; Arizona senator John McCain's widow Cindy; and LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund.
As the US and the wider world awaits the complete and certified result and a clear tabulation and breakdown of polling data, the broader trends among those who voted for Mr Biden are becoming apparent. According to political science professor Charles Stewart, founding director of MIT’s Election Data and Science Lab, women voted 56-43 for Mr Biden. Taylor Crumpton, who writes on music, pop culture and politics, added granular detail. “Black women saved Joe Biden,” she said. “Without our support, the President-elect would be preparing a powerful speech about how despite his defeat, the nation needs to stand together as a united people." Ms Crumpton went on to refer to the Biden ticket’s wins as “powered largely by the turnout in places like Detroit, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Philadelphia”.
US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris deliver remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on Saturday. AFP
It’s a good point. Indeed, there was greater support for Mr Biden in certain demographic categories and in unexpected geographical areas, not least the reliably Republican state of Georgia. But it didn’t happen just by chance and it is four women who can justifiably be said to have been pivotal in helping Mr Biden secure the presidency.
First, to Ms Harris's candidacy. It had that rare quality, both symbolic and real significance. In picking her, Mr Biden made sure America would get its first woman vice-president in 244 years, or as the cliche goes, a heartbeat away from the presidency. As the daughter of immigrants, Ms Harris will become the first black and South Asian woman to ascend to the second-highest office in the land.
There is much to suggest that the presence of Ms Harris on the Democratic ticket did have a transformational effect, at least in terms of motivating a diverse coalition of suburban women voters of colour who saw themselves in her story.
Not only did Ms Harris appear with many high-profile black radio and digital media hosts throughout the socially distanced election campaign, popular singer-songwriter Alicia Keys released a widely watched video of her joining the vice-presidential candidate on the campaign trail in Arizona. Singer John Legend also spoke out for Ms Harris.
With her signature Chuck Taylor sneakers, propensity to dance as she stood at a lectern and the habit of bending down to speak to young girls at eye level as she campaigned, Ms Harris became a political presence in her own right. Ms Harris’s facial expressions – from congressional hearings during her four years as a California senator – were made into memes and printed on T-shirts. Sonia Sanchez, a highly regarded poet once prominent in the Black Arts Movement and who knew and was influenced by slain civil rights activist Malcolm X, has said that Ms Harris’s candidacy made her feel “a breath, the possibility of progress and of teaching us the real idea of democracy”.
Voting right activist and politician Stacey Abrams worked hard to get out the vote in Georgia. AFP
That's true but the nuts and bolts of the real idea of democracy was arguably fit together by a lower-profile figure. Until now, Ms Abrams has been known mainly to political junkies, policy wonks and politically engaged black celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Legend. But the 46-year-old Yale law school graduate, former minority delegation leader of the Georgia state legislature and 2018 gubernatorial candidate is being hailed as one of the chief architects of Mr Biden's victory. She is seen as the reason that Georgia, which has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate in three decades, may now go for Mr Biden. As of Sunday morning, the Democrat was leading Donald Trump in Georgia by more than 7,000 votes with 98 per cent of the intake counted.
How Ms Abrams managed this feat is set to become popular lore and possibly a case study for political science researchers. From 2013, Ms Abrams has been committed to her New Georgia Project, which worked consistently to find new voters, register and inform them about the power of their voice and finally, turn them out to cast their ballots. From 2018, within a fortnight of her wafer-thin loss in the election for Georgia governor, allegedly because her Republican opponent played dirty, Ms Abrams became one of the country's preeminent voting rights activists. She created a non-profit called Fair Fight, which ramped up efforts to combat voter suppression – mainly of African-Americans – and increase participation. As a result, it's estimated that more than 800,000 new people registered to vote in Georgia since 2018. Roughly 45 per cent of the new voters are under the age of 30 and 49 per cent are people of colour, with a surge in Latino, Asian American, and Pacific Islander turnout.
The Black Voters Matter Fund was born out of LaTosha Brown’s disappointment over her own 1998 local election loss in Alabama. When she realised it was an example of voter suppression, she decided to tackle the issue. imageSPACE/MediaPunch/MediaPunch/IPx
So too Ms Brown’s Black Voters Matter Fund. The organisation was born out of Ms Brown’s disappointment over her own 1998 local election loss in Alabama. When she realised it was an example of voter suppression, she decided to tackle the issue. Ms Brown, who now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, has been working in the state, as well as in Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Mississippi to ensure that black communities are registered to vote and aware of the need to exercise it.
Ms McCain is the fourth woman who played a part in Mr Biden’s victory. Arizona, which her late husband represented in the Senate as a Republican for more than three decades, may be flipping to the Democratic column. The state has a long political history of voting Republican but Mr Biden remained in the lead there as of Sunday morning. It may not have happened without Ms McCain’s gentle but insistent championing of Mr Biden as the candidate her husband would view as "what's best for our country…a president for all people, not just Democrats".
The grieving widow's move came in the aftermath of bitter clashes between her husband and Mr Trump, who mocked the senator, a war hero, for being taken captive and tortured during the Vietnam War. Arizona's possible turn to the Democrat column has prompted some jocularity with a former McCain aide joking that a Biden win in the state could almost be the work of the senator's "ghost".
Seriously though, this may be one of the first US elections that the presidency was emphatically determined by women’s imagination, initiative and indefatigable energy.
Cindy McCain helped the Joe Biden presidential campaign in Arizona. AFP
Rashmee Roshan Lall is a columnist for The National
The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.
A documentary
A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.
Books, letters and archives
Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.
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.”
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
----
Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
----
Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
'Avengers: Infinity War'
Dir: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Junior, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen
Four stars
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany - At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people - Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed - Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest - He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Friday's schedule at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
GP3 qualifying, 10:15am
Formula 2, practice 11:30am
Formula 1, first practice, 1pm
GP3 qualifying session, 3.10pm
Formula 1 second practice, 5pm
Formula 2 qualifying, 7pm
Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
Name: Mamo Year it started: 2019 Founders: Imad Gharazeddine, Asim Janjua Based: Dubai, UAE Number of employees: 28 Sector: Financial services Investment: $9.5m Funding stage: Pre-Series A Investors: Global Ventures, GFC, 4DX Ventures, AlRajhi Partners, Olive Tree Capital, and prominent Silicon Valley investors.
Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
