US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden have relied heavily on political advertising before the election next Tuesday.
From television to social media, their campaigns have spent millions of dollars to win over voters.
Mr Biden had raised $177 million in campaign funds at the start of October, compared to Mr Trump's $63.1m, The New York Times reported.
The Trump campaign cut millions from its national budget as contributions dwindled, while Mr Biden added tens of millions to his war chest.
As the election draws near, recent advertisements released by the Trump campaign have relied on misinformation and scare tactics to sway voters.
A two-day Google advertisement by the Trump campaign erroneously claimed Mr Biden would raise taxes on 82 per cent of all Americans.
Mr Biden has said tax increases would only affect those who earn $400,000 or more a year.
The Trump campaign also promoted an unusual attack advertisement on YouTube this week that compared Mr Biden to a zombie.
The video, How to Prevent a Zombie Uprising, featured images of Mr Biden.
“Look for someone who has a corpse-like appearance, exhibits aggressive behaviour, craves human flesh and utters incoherent moans and groans,” its narrator says.
It has been viewed more than 6.9 million times.
Mr Trump spent about $90m on Facebook advertisements since July 1, $18.8m more than Mr Biden, research from the New York University Ad Observatory found.
The group interviewed 6,500 respondents during a survey to track political spending on the social media site. It found that 27 per cent of Mr Trump’s advertisements on Facebook since July 1 were used to attack the media.
The study also found that the Trump and Biden campaigns applied highly specific filters to reach out to Facebook users.
The filters provided an insight into the types of voters the campaigns hoped to win over as both focused heavily on swing states and minorities.
The Trump campaign went for the African-American vote by using filters to reach voters interested in "hip hop music, African-American music, African-American culture and/or Vibe [magazine]".
It also reached out to fans of sports clubs in swing states, including the Green Bay Packers American football team in Wisconsin and Detroit Red Wings ice hockey team in Michigan.
The Biden campaign sought to win over the LGBTQ community by homing in on Facebook users interested in "LGBT community, Out [magazine], Pride and/or RuPaul's Drag Race".
Mr Biden also zeroed in on National Public Radio listeners, Oprah fans and Facebook users interested in Lin-Manuel Miranda, The Avengers film series and Star Trek.
The Biden campaign received a significant cash boost from billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who announced this week that he would finance an advertising blitz for the Democratic presidential nominee in the final week of the campaign.
Mr Bloomberg, who unsuccessfully ran for the presidential nomination, will spend $15m on advertising in Texas and Ohio.
The money will pay for state-wide advertisements in English and Spanish. The move bolsters the Biden campaign as it focuses on traditionally Republican states.
The former vice president has focused on red states to appeal to voters, often suburban, whose opinion of Mr Trump has changed owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
He has also trained his sights on young voters and people of colour in his quest to turn red states blue. While Texas is home to a large Republican population, polling has shown that Ohio remains evenly split.
Until now, Mr Bloomberg had focused on boosting the Democratic ticket in Florida after he pledged $100m to support Mr Biden in the southern swing state.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg news agency reported that Mr Trump had withdrawn most of the advertising funds for Florida to focus on four battleground states: Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Trump campaign denied the report, saying it was spending more than a million on TV advertising in Florida.
However, his campaign suffered a blow as fundraising slowed and the economic gains he hoped to tout were undone by the coronavirus pandemic.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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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1 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
4 Max Verstappen, Red Bull
5 Kevin Magnussen, Haas
6 Romain Grosjean, Haas
7 Nico Hulkenberg, Renault
*8 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
9 Carlos Sainz, Renault
10 Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
11 Fernando Alonso, McLaren
12 Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren
13 Sergio Perez, Force India
14 Lance Stroll, Williams
15 Esteban Ocon, Force India
16 Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso
17 Marcus Ericsson, Sauber
18 Charles Leclerc, Sauber
19 Sergey Sirotkin, Williams
20 Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso
* Daniel Ricciardo qualified fifth but had a three-place grid penalty for speeding in red flag conditions during practice
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- Flexible payment plans from developers
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Price: From Dh180,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged and supercharged in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 320hp @ 5,700rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 2,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.7L / 100km
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Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
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Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
