Two Nasa astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut made a safe return from the International Space Station to a planet roiled by the coronavirus pandemic on Friday.
Andrew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka touched down in central Kazakhstan at 08.16 UAE time in the first returning mission since the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a global pandemic in March.
"TOUCHDOWN! Welcome home, Oleg Skripochka, Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir!" Russia's Roscosmos space agency said in a tweet.
The crew members were also welcomed back to Earth by Hazza Al Mansouri, the UAE's first astronaut.
Mr Al Mansouri, who completed a mission aboard the International Space Station last year, tweeted footage of his former crew mates touching down in the Soyuz MS-15 capsule and of their farewell aboard the space station.
While the trio's landing site south-east of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan is the same as for previous crews, the pandemic has forced a number of changes to mission-end protocol.
Roscosmos said on Tuesday that the crews meeting the trio at the landing site were tested for Covid-19 and would be wearing don full-body protective gear.
The crew will also avoid the usual staging post of Karaganda airport – shut down like so many other airports across the world – for their respective journeys back to Russia and the United States.
Instead, Mr Skripochka will fly from the Baikonur cosmodrome used to launch missions to the ISS while the Nasa duo will take off in a plane from the steppe city of Kyzlorda after a drive of several hours.
In a media appearance aboard the ISS prior to her departure, Ms Meir said it would be difficult to forgo embraces with family and friends as she gets to grips with a new culture of physical distancing on Earth.
"I think I will feel more isolated on Earth than here," she said.
The astronaut had spoken of how hard it was to comprehend the events going on at home.
"It is quite surreal for us to see this whole situation unfolding on the planet below," said Ms Meir.
"We can tell you that the Earth still looks just as stunning as always from up here, so it’s difficult to believe all the changes that have taken place since both of us have been up here."
She made history as one half of the first all-women spacewalk along with Nasa colleague Christina Koch in October.
Mr Morgan also spoke about his medical experience with the US Army.
"As an emergency physician, I know what it's like to be in a hospital or on the front lines of a field hospital," he said. "I'm very proud to be part of that profession, but at the same time, I feel guilt that I am as separated from it as I could be right now."
The International Space Station, a rare example of co-operation between Russia and the West, has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometres per hour since 1998.
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Coronavirus around the world
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More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
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MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
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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.”
Match info:
Manchester City 2
Sterling (8'), Walker (52')
Newcastle United 1
Yedlin (30')
