Diana's legacy looms large over Kate's big day



LONDON // The legacy of Princess Diana, and the media coverage that played such a major part in her life and death, will loom large over this week's royal wedding.

Prince Harry, best man to brother Prince William at his marriage to Kate Middleton on Friday, admits that the absence of his late mother will inevitably play on the minds of many of those at the wedding.

"Myself, my brother and my father … there will be all sorts of people and the rest of the family that will be no doubt be thinking about it," he said recently. "And I hope she would be very, very proud that the big day has come upon him."

It was symbolic that Prince William chose to put his mother's engagement ring on Miss Middleton's finger. Symbolic, too, that the happy couple will travel after the wedding in the same horse-drawn carriage that carried Princess Diana after her marriage to Prince Charles in 1982, ill-starred though it eventually turned out to be.

Now Miss Middleton is on the verge of overtaking Princess Diana as the most talked-about woman in the world's media, according to a study released last week by the Global Language Monitor (GLM), based in Texas.

Tracking media citations worldwide, GLM found that, almost two weeks before the wedding that will attract a television audience estimated at two billion viewers worldwide, Miss Middleton was already posting Diana-type numbers in terms of news worthiness on leading global media sites, the Internet and social media.

"Kate Middleton is set to eclipse Princess Di as the media star of the royal family," Paul JJ Payack, GLM president, told Reuters.

"In fact, Kate could surpass all Internet, social media, and global print and electronic media citations by the time the royal wedding-related stories are compiled."

Yet while both Miss Middleton and Princess Diana have provided irresistible attractions for the media, the practical responses of the pair to this attention have been markedly different.

Princess Diana might have aspired to be a fairy-tale princess but Miss Middleton certainly does not.

While Princess Diana regularly courted the media until her death in Paris 14 years ago at the hands of a drunken chauffeur apparently trying to outrun pursuing paparazzi, Miss Middleton has proved far more wary of the press.

In fact, since Princess Diana's death, Buckingham Palace itself has become much more media savvy. And tougher, if informal, arrangements to stop royals being harassed by the press in their off-duty hours have come into effect.

"You've got people around William and Kate who understand the needs of the media and of the public," said Max Clifford, the doyen of British PR consultants.

Mr Clifford said that, in a concerted effort to avoid the negative publicity that accompanied Princess Diana and her death, Buckingham Palace had conceded that it must provide access to the couple to keep the media onside.

Unlike in Princess Diana's day, a senior member of the Buckingham Palace staff has been tasked with teaching Prince William and Miss Middleton how to handle the media. Added to that, they now have a formidable press secretary in Miguel Head who has bluntly told the media that legal action would be instituted if any tried to intrude on the couple's private life.

Aside from the voluntary code between the media and the palace, drawn up under the auspices of the Press Complaints Commisssion (PCC), Miss Middleton has far more legal protection than Princess Diana ever did. Privacy provisions within the 1998 Human Rights Act and 1997 Protection from Harassment Act open the way for legal action against paparazzi deemed to be intruding on her private life.

Miss Middleton and her family have shown they are willing to take action. In 2007, she won an apology from the Daily Mirror after it published a picture of her walking with a cup of coffee. She complained to the PCC that she felt harassed.

A year ago, Miss Middleton received £5,000 (Dh30,318) in damages for a breach of privacy, plus legal costs from the picture agency Rex Features who distributed pictures of her on a tennis court in Cornwall.

And this month, her mother and sister made an informal complaint to the PCC over harassment by photographers, which led the press watchdog to remind editors of their ethical obligations in a letter.

"Kate Middleton - like anybody else, in the public eye or not - is protected by the terms of harassment in the code," said a PCC spokesman. "Editors are bound to ensure that they do not publish pictures obtained in contravention of the code. There is a public interest exemption to this clause."

However, for all the voluntary codes and legal protections, members of the paparazzi still seem bent of keeping a very close eye on Prince William's bride, just as they did when his mother was alive.

"The simple fact is," said one veteran royal photographer, speaking on the grounds of anonymity, "that there is an awful lot of money to be made out there from one picture of Kate. Even if the British press won't use them, there's a pretty insatiable appetite abroad for such stuff. Even innocuous pictures, like the one of Kate when she popped in to Westminster Abbey to check it out as a wedding venue, can pull in £100,000 in syndication."

Jenny Afia, a senior associate at leading media law firm Schillings, agrees. "Voluntary arrangements can work well because they're commercially motivated. Magazines like Hello! have more to gain by staying onside with the royals than alienating them," she said.

"But if there's one fantastic story that's worth jeopardising the relationship, the media will go with it."

It seems that, come the crunch, times might not have changed all that much since Princess Diana's death in the tunnel in Paris.

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Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Profile Idealz

Company: Idealz

Founded: January 2018

Based: Dubai

Sector: E-commerce

Size: (employees): 22

Investors: Co-founders and Venture Partners (9 per cent)

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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners

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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Director: Shankar 

Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram

Rating: 2/5

War

Director: Siddharth Anand

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor

Rating: Two out of five stars 

If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.

The Library: A Catalogue of Wonders
Stuart Kells, Counterpoint Press

Other workplace saving schemes
  • The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
  • Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
  • National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
  • In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
  • Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League final:

Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports

Isle of Dogs

Director: Wes Anderson

Starring: Bryan Cranston, Liev Schreiber, Ed Norton, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson

Three stars

The biog

Mission to Seafarers is one of the largest port-based welfare operators in the world.

It provided services to around 200 ports across 50 countries.

They also provide port chaplains to help them deliver professional welfare services.

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Milestones on the road to union

1970

October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar. 

December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.

1971

March 1:  Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.

July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.

July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.

August 6:  The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.

August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.

September 3: Qatar becomes independent.

November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.

November 29:  At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.

November 30: Despite  a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa. 

November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties

December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.

December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.

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Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5

 

The biog

Name: Salvador Toriano Jr

Age: 59

From: Laguna, The Philippines

Favourite dish: Seabass or Fish and Chips

Hobbies: When he’s not in the restaurant, he still likes to cook, along with walking and meeting up with friends.

AGUERO'S PREMIER LEAGUE RECORD

Apps: 186
Goals: 127
Assists: 31
Wins: 117
Losses: 33

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Director: Venkat Prabhu
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Guide to intelligent investing
Investing success often hinges on discipline and perspective. As markets fluctuate, remember these guiding principles:
  • Stay invested: Time in the market, not timing the market, is critical to long-term gains.
  • Rational thinking: Breathe and avoid emotional decision-making; let logic and planning guide your actions.
  • Strategic patience: Understand why you’re investing and allow time for your strategies to unfold.
 
 
Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5