The US elections of 2020 have been the most controversial, heated and bizarre since, well, the 2016 US elections.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden have been tearing strips from each other, at a distance, for the past few months leading up to tonight’s final showdown.
Here are five of the most frequently Googled questions on the contest in the build-up to US election night.
Who decides the next president if there is no absolute majority?
Joe Biden has enjoyed a lead in the polls for weeks, although Donald Trump has tired to cast doubt on their accuracy.
But with many crucial states on a knife edge there is the faintest of possibilities that neither candidate will receive an absolute majority.
In this unlikely event, The House of Representatives determines the outcome with each state getting one vote and an absolute majority required.
This is not without precedent. Both Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and John Quincy Adams in 1824 were ordained by the House when the electoral college vote failed to produce a winner.
The fact that both occasions occurred about 200 years ago shows the rarity of such an outcome. But in this strangest of years, you never know.
How old is Joe Biden?
Much has been made of the age of both candidates but it is Joe Biden’s that has attracted most attention.
This may be partly down to Donald Trump’s nickname for him, Sleepy Joe.
But it is also because if Mr Biden were to win the White House, at the venerable age of 77, he would become its oldest occupant.
His birthday is on November 20, so if inaugurated he would be 78.
And the previous record holder? One Donald Trump.
What is the president’s salary?
The presidential salary is $400,000. Donald Trump has claimed to donate his Oval Office stipend but he still earns money from his various property assets.
Mr Trump is not the first US president to donate his salary. The wealthy John F Kennedy and Herbert Hoover did the same.
What’s the difference between impeachment and removal?
Simply put, presidents can be impeached but not removed. No sitting president has ever been turfed out of office.
Three presidents have been impeached during their tenure: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Donald Trump in 2019.
The only other president to have faced impeachment proceedings was Richard Nixon in 1974 after the Watergate scandal.
While not forcibly removed, Nixon did resign, and it is commonly believed that he jumped before he was pushed.
Has any president served three terms?
Only one president has ever served more than two terms – Franklin D Roosevelt, who claimed a third stint in 1940.
He was able to do this for two reasons: the fragility of the nation after the Great Depression and the outbreak of the Second World War.
Roosevelt was viewed as a phlegmatic and dependable man, a steady hand on the presidential tiller in a time of crisis.
Remarkably, he would have extended his White House residency to four terms after winning in 1944 but a cerebral haemorrhage put paid to this.
Roosevelt died in April the following year.
Keep abreast of the latest developments in the US elections here.
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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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The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
UAE v Ireland
1st ODI, UAE win by 6 wickets
2nd ODI, January 12
3rd ODI, January 14
4th ODI, January 16
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
