Live updates: follow the latest news on Russia-Ukraine
With the skies above Ukraine closed to civilian aircraft, many Ukrainians have been stranded at Istanbul Airport wondering when they might be able to return home.
Kiev closed its airspace shortly after Russia launched its invasion on Thursday and Russian warplanes took to the skies.
Istanbul is a major international air hub and the stranded passengers included not only those travelling from Turkey, a highly popular tourist destination for Ukrainians and Russians, but from all over the world.
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No 10 Downing Street in London is lit blue and yellow in solidarity with Ukraine after the Russian invasion. EPA -

A protest banner outside Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, which is also lit up in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Reuters -

People show solidarity with the people of Ukraine outside the Colosseum in Rome. AP Photo -

The Cinquantenaire Arch lit up on the sidelines of a special meeting of the European Council to discuss the Ukrainian crisis, in Brussels. Bloomberg -

Oslo City Hall is illuminated in Norway. Reuters -

The SIS Building in central London, home to intelligence services, is lit up in an expression of solidarity with Ukraine. PA -

Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. EPA -

The Foreign Office in central London displays the colours of the Ukrainian flag. PA -

Sarajevo City Hall floodlit in blue and yellow in Bosnia. AFP -

The Queen Elizabeth II Centre in central London. PA -

St George's Hall in Liverpool, England. PA
Oleksiy Galenko, 43, said he had tickets to return to Kiev from a family holiday in Thailand.
“We arrived in Istanbul yesterday and the airline put us in a hotel overnight,” he told The National.
“We are now trying to get to Poland and from there go to Lviv and stay with my wife’s family. It's a very worrying situation because we can’t be sure what the security situation will be like later today or tomorrow. That’s why we’re not going back to Kiev straight away because there’s fighting there."
Neighbouring Moldova also closed its skies and Belarus shut part of its airspace as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency warned of risks in flying close to Ukraine's borders.
“There is a risk of both intentional targeting and misidentification of civil aircraft,” the agency said.
Many Russians were also caught at the airport as their flights would have normally crossed the now closed airspace to reach their destinations.
Anna Shcherbakova was headed for home in Perm, about 1,100 kilometres east of Moscow, after a family break in Turkey.
“We are hungry and thirsty,” she told the Demiroren News Agency. “We came here as a family for a holiday. Now we’re here [at the airport] and we don’t know what to do.
“We hope the Russian government will do something for us. We do not want to stay here. We haven’t received any information. We tried to get information from the airline representative but couldn’t.”
Turkish Airlines and Turkey’s Pegasus Airlines said they would refund passengers affected by the airspace closures.
Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, about 2.1 million Russians and 1 million Ukrainians visited Turkey in 2020, according to figures from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, making them the largest and fourth-largest tourism sources.
Lorry drivers were also affected by the war, with many headed for or crossing Ukraine waiting at Turkey’s border crossing with Bulgaria before continuing.
“We spoke with our friends [in Ukraine] and they said that the tanks were passing in front of them,” Kiev-bound Mehmet Ozdemir told the Ilhas News Agency. “Where and how can I go in this situation? The people are already at war.”
Crowds of Ukrainians gathered outside the Russian consulate in Istanbul and its embassy in Ankara to protest against the invasion. The demonstrators waved the Ukrainian flag and displayed placards with messages such as “Murderer Putin, Get Out of Ukraine”.
“We are grateful for Turkey’s support,” Yuliya Biletska said in Ankara. “What happened to Ukraine today can happen to other countries as well. We call on all Turkish people to support Ukraine.”
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
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Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
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Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
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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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Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019


