Five Palestinians have been shot dead in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities said on Tuesday.
There were reports of four separate incidents involving fatalities, one near the village of Beit Ummar, near the West Bank city of Hebron, and two near Ramallah, in the villages of Kafr Ein and Al Mughayir. The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry confirmed the men's death.
The Israeli army said its vehicles had come under attack near Beit Ummar and had returned fire. Palestinian officials reported seven people were injured in the incident.
In a separate incident near the Israeli West Bank settlement of Kokhav Ya'akov, a man was shot dead after driving his car into a woman, who was seriously injured, at a checkpoint. Magen David Adom, Israel's emergency service, confirmed the death of the man, as said the woman was in hospital.
The army later shot a man it said tried to hurl a firebomb towards soldiers in Al Mughayir. His death was confirmed by the Palestinian health ministry on Tuesday evening.
Palestinian towns in the West Bank have been the scene of intensified raids by Israel since Palestinians carried out several street attacks in its cities in March.
The worsening violence comes as the incoming government of Benjamin Netanyahu is set to appoint Itamar Ben-Gvir in a new role of national security minister, which would entail overseeing Israeli police operations in the occupied West Bank.
Mr Ben-Gvir has a history of far-right extremist views, having been a member of Kach, a US and Israeli-designated terrorist group that was linked to the massacre of 29 worshippers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron in 1994.
He has since claimed his views have moderated, saying that he no longer wants to deport Israeli-Arabs and that he has “grown up”.
But he was widely criticised this month for attending a memorial service for Kach founder Meir Kahane, an ultranationalist Rabbi who was charged with attempting to blow up the Iraqi embassy in Washington DC, before being assassinated in 1990.
On Tuesday, Israeli publication Haaretz reported Mr Ben-Gvir intended to appoint far-right agitator Chanamel Dorfman to a senior position in his National Security Ministry. Mr Dorfman has been accused of instigating violence in the West Bank, including against the Israeli Defence Forces, Haaretz reported.
More than 138 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year, making it the deadliest year in the area since 2006. The Israeli army said most of the Palestinians killed had been militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting against Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, along with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians seek those territories for their independent state.
Match info
Uefa Champions League Group H
Juventus v Valencia, Tuesday, midnight (UAE)
Florida: The critical Sunshine State
Though mostly conservative, Florida is usually always “close” in presidential elections. In most elections, the candidate that wins the Sunshine State almost always wins the election, as evidenced in 2016 when Trump took Florida, a state which has not had a democratic governor since 1991.
Joe Biden’s campaign has spent $100 million there to turn things around, understandable given the state’s crucial 29 electoral votes.
In 2016, Mr Trump’s democratic rival Hillary Clinton paid frequent visits to Florida though analysts concluded that she failed to appeal towards middle-class voters, whom Barack Obama won over in the previous election.
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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Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
