When an invitation to party with John Travolta lights up your inbox, you don’t delay with the RSVP. I wasn’t alone – more than 150 VIPs packed out the newly refurbished 360 venue at Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai on Thursday night.
In an age where some celebs have no qualms about keeping their audience waiting for hours, refreshingly, Mr T arrived right on cue. The second bonus was that he spent more than an hour posing for group photographs with suited and booted fans.
Looking far younger than his 59 years, Travolta was clad in a petrol blue velvet jacket, black slacks and crocodile skin slip-ons.
Softly spoken, with dancing eyes and a broad smile, the actor chatted politely with star-struck attendees who gushed about their favourite of his films.
Having spent a week in Dubai in his role as an ambassador for Qantas, Travolta appeared charmed at the Arab hospitality he had received. “The desert was awesome, so tranquil, beautiful and comfortable,” he said. “We rode camels, did falconry and I took lots of pictures with my son. The desert was their highlight – other than the tallest building in the world, they loved that too.”
The screen legend confirmed he planned to return to the UAE and said he identified with the ambitious spirit of Dubai.
“It’s a city with vision, it’s very rare and I think there’s something happening here that isn’t anywhere else in the world,” he said. “I’ll be back and bring more people with me because I’d like to share it with the rest of my family and my friends. My advice would be to do everything I did.”
As guests tucked into chicken satay and tangy tomato gazpacho, a trim Travolta regaled tales of the meals he’d enjoyed while in town.
“I have loved everything and dinner under the stars was delicious.” he said. “It’s the most cosmopolitan place in the world, you couldn’t want for any [kind of food] here.”
As Travolta sauntered out of the club, well-fed and ready for bed, fans and VIPs soon followed, each clutching Qantas goody bags of business class pyjamas.
rduane@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
UAE%20v%20West%20Indies
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The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh960,000
Engine 3.9L twin-turbo V8
Transmission Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Power 661hp @8,000rpm
Torque 760Nm @ 3,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined 11.4L / 100k
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
RESULTS
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
'Panga'
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
Rating: 3.5/5
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.