Paul the Octopus a hard act to follow; Maradona being Maradona; Ronaldo congratulates Klose

Flopping animal picks

Paul the Octopus is sadly missed. The National’s pair of World Cup-predicting camels are just two members of the animal kingdom having a rough time forecasting Brazil 2014. The camels were right on only one of four “predictions”, choosing the treat that indicated the Netherlands would defeat Spain, but missing on Croatia over Brazil, Portugal over Germany and England drawing with Uruguay. Other erring animals include Flopsy the Kangaroo in Australia, Mani the parakeet in Singapore, Madame Shiva the guinea pig in Switzerland, Pele the piranha in Britain and Big Head the turtle from Brazil. In 2010, Paul the German octopus had a series of accurate picks, including Spain over the Netherlands in the final, but the cephalopod died a few weeks after the tournament ended.

Messi Twitter explosion

Lionel Messi’s injury-time goal against Iran set off a social-media eruption. The Argentine striker’s curling shot inspired 256,024 Twitter comments per minute, one of the highest figures of the World Cup, the social network said. The high of 261,026 tweets per minute was set after Portugal’s defender Pepe was sent off for butting German striker Thomas Muller.

Maradona gesture

Diego Maradona made an obscene gesture on live TV yesterday aimed at Julio Grondona, the Argentine federation president. Grondona had suggested Argentina scored against Iran because “jinx” Maradona had left the stadium by then. While appearing on a Venezuela station, Maradona said: “Poor, stupid man. This is Messi’s merit, not because I left.”

Belgian camping mishap

Hundreds of Belgian fans were looking forward to a “luxury camping” trip to the World Cup, but they ended up in a muddy mess far from five-star treatment. About 500 people paid €150 (Dh750) a night, per person, for the privilege of sleeping in tents that lack electricity and the promised internet connection. The tourists at the “Belgian Village” at Recreio dos Bandeirantes, a coastal resort 40 kilometres west of Rio de Janeiro, also have contended with dirty showers and toilets, and have forwarded their complaints to a Dutch company operating the site.

Nigeria ends drought

Millions of Nigerians, including the president, Goodluck Jonathan, stayed up late on Saturday to celebrate after the African champions beat Bosnia to boost their chances of reaching the World Cup knockout rounds. Spontaneous victory parties broke out across the country after Nigeria ended a 16-year wait for a match win at a World Cup finals. Jonathan popped champagne with aides at the Aso Rock Villa in Abuja after the historic win.

Klose company

The former Brazil striker Ronaldo congratulated Miroslav Klose after the German equalled his record of 15 World Cup goals on Saturday. Klose, 36, came on in the second half against Ghana and scored the equaliser in a 2-2 draw. “Welcome to the club,” Ronaldo tweeted. “I can only imagine your happiness!!! What a great World Cup!!!” Ronaldo scored his goals in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 tournaments.

Fifa payments

Fifa has declined to comment on claims that annual payments were doubled for executive committee members after their bonuses were stopped. The Sunday Times of Britain reported that the 25 board members now get a US$200,000 (Dh735,000) stipend for their part-time duties. A Fifa spokeswoman yesterday said executive payments are decided by a panel created as part of Fifa reforms in 2011 after a series of financial and election scandals.

La Mer lowdown

La Mer beach is open from 10am until midnight, daily, and is located in Jumeirah 1, well after Kite Beach. Some restaurants, like Cupagahwa, are open from 8am for breakfast; most others start at noon. At the time of writing, we noticed that signs for Vicolo, an Italian eatery, and Kaftan, a Turkish restaurant, indicated that these two restaurants will be open soon, most likely this month. Parking is available, as well as a Dh100 all-day valet option or a Dh50 valet service if you’re just stopping by for a few hours.

LA LIGA FIXTURES

Friday Valladolid v Osasuna (Kick-off midnight UAE)

Saturday Valencia v Athletic Bilbao (5pm), Getafe v Sevilla (7.15pm), Huesca v Alaves (9.30pm), Real Madrid v Atletico Madrid (midnight)

Sunday Real Sociedad v Eibar (5pm), Real Betis v Villarreal (7.15pm), Elche v Granada (9.30pm), Barcelona v Levante (midnight)

Monday Celta Vigo v Cadiz (midnight)

More from Neighbourhood Watch:

Neighbourhood Watch: away from Dubai's glitz, Hatta is where present and past collide

Neighbourhood Watch: A rare glimpse of Bedouin life in the humble border town of Qoa

Neighbourhood Watch: Al Ghadeer, the Abu Dhabi satellite town that could be the future of transport

Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium

Date: Sunday, November 25

EA Sports FC 26

Publisher: EA Sports

Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S

Rating: 3/5

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.

Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

The%20Boy%20and%20the%20Heron

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EHayao%20Miyazaki%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%C2%A0Soma%20Santoki%2C%20Masaki%20Suda%2C%20Ko%20Shibasaki%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

Farage on Muslim Brotherhood

Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.

Our legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants

Fanney Khan

Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora

Director: Atul Manjrekar

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand

Rating: 2/5

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets

The specs: 2019 Cadillac XT4

Price, base: Dh145,000

Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged in-line four-cylinder engine

Transmission: Nine-speed automatic

Power: 237hp @ 5,000rpm

Torque: 350Nm @ 1,500rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km

The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young

While you're here

Mustafa Alrawi: To get the 'jab' done, there must be patience and empathy

Damien McElroy: Anti-science attitudes in America are proving lethal

Editorial: What makes the UAE such a good place to test vaccines?

Editorial: The fight against Covid-19 should be guided by science

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.”