Alexander Pechurski, left, receives congratulations after his debut for the Penguins.
Alexander Pechurski, left, receives congratulations after his debut for the Penguins.

From Russia with glove



VANCOUVER // On Friday, the Tri-City Americans' netminder Alexander Pechurski was playing in a junior game in Kennewick, Washington. Just 24 hours later, the 19-year-old Russian found himself wearing borrowed pads and tending goal for the injury-hit Pittsburgh Penguins as the Stanley Cup champions wrapped up their Canadian West Coast swing against the Vancouver Canucks.

With their top netminder, Marc-Andre Fleury, and his backup, Brent Johnson, out with injuries, the Penguins called up Pechurski and John Curry from their American Hockey League affiliate. Curry was handed the start but was pulled from the game early in the second period after surrendering five goals on 14 shots. Pechurski, who signed a one-day amateur try-out contract just before the opening face off, was thrust into the action with almost 19,000 fans watching his every move.

The 150th overall pick by the Penguins in the 2008 draft held his own, stopping 12 of 13 shots as Pittsburgh slumped to a 6-2 defeat. His performance was one of the few bright spots for the Penguins and earned high praise from the team captain, Sidney Crosby. "He showed a lot of poise, that's not an easy situation to go into," Crosby said. "He showed a lot of guts coming in like that and playing the way he did.

"He passed the test big time." After the game, the beaming teenager, who had arrived in North America from Russia only three weeks ago, basked in the spotlight as he packed his bags to return to the Western Hockey League's Americans. "I was really surprised, at the same time I was happy I had the chance to play," said Pechurski. "It is a dream coming true to play in the NHL. " The Penguins opened the scoring with a goal from Evgeni Malkin before the Canucks scored five in a row to chase Curry

Elsewhere in the NHL, Steve Ott's goal in the sixth round of a shoot out helped the Dallas Stars beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 and end a three-game skid. Alex Auld, the Dallas goalie, and Detroit's Jimmy Howard were perfect in the first five rounds before Ott backhanded a shot through Howard's pads. Jonathan Toews scored twice in the third period and added an assist as the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Columbs Blue Jackets 6-5, while the San Jose Sharks' Devin Setoguchi scored a pair inside two minutes to lead his team to a 4-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers, who have lost seven in a row.

Craig Anderson made 37 saves and Chris Stewart and TJ Galiardi scored for the Colorado Avalanche as they hung on to beat the New Jersey Devils 3-1. Wojtek Wolski scored an empty-net goal with 12.3 seconds left to seal the win. Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar scored in the third period and got both Los Angeles Kings' goals in a shoot out to beat the Boston Bruins 4-3, while Trent Hunter's goal in the eighth round of a shoot out made the New York Islanders' netminder Rick DiPietro a winner in his first home game in more than a year after a knee injury. The Islanders beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-2.

The Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens 4-2, the Florida Panthers cruised to a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the St Louis Blues beat the New York Rangers 4-1 for their fourth consecutive win, the Phoenix Coyotes edged the Minnesota Wild 6-4 and the Atlanta Thrashers fought back from a two-goal deficit to beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3.

* Reuters

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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
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Arsenal's pre-season fixtures

Thursday Beat Sydney 2-0 in Sydney

Saturday v Western Sydney Wanderers in Sydney

Wednesday v Bayern Munich in Shanghai

July 22 v Chelsea in Beijing

July 29 v Benfica in London

July 30 v Sevilla in London

THE LIGHT

Director: Tom Tykwer

Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger

Rating: 3/5

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Results

Stage seven

1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates, in 3:20:24

2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 1s

3. Pello Bilbao (ESP) Bahrain-Victorious, at 5s

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates, in 25:38:16

2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers, at 22s

3. Pello Bilbao (ESP) Bahrain-Victorious, at 48s

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.”

Electoral College Victory

Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate. 

 

Popular Vote Tally

The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.

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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
AndhaDhun

Director: Sriram Raghavan

Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18

Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan

Rating: 3.5/5