As the US prepares to head to the polls in November, Michigan’s Saginaw County finds itself in an interesting position, having become one of America's most important bellwether communities.
In 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won the county by just 1.1 per cent in his shock victory over Hillary Clinton, a Democrat. Four years later, more voters backed Democrat Joe Biden – but only by 303 votes.
It was one of three counties in Michigan to switch from Mr Trump to Mr Biden in 2020 and has proven to be on the pulse of the national political mood, choosing every president over the last four elections.
In an election that is set to be extremely tight, how voters in Saginaw County feel could offer an insight into who will win in November.
Republicans and Democrats alike will be keeping a close eye on the county in the weeks and months ahead. Realising Saginaw County’s importance, Mr Biden campaigned here in March before ending his re-election bid in July. Mr Trump followed him there in May.
For Anne DeLisle – chairwoman of the Republican Party’s eighth congressional district in Michigan, which includes Saginaw County – the area represents the US as a whole.
“Saginaw County is a perfect balance of farmers, rural people, and you have an urban area,” she told The National. “It’s a really good mix and representation of your general voting population.”
The county's largest town, Saginaw, boomed during the early 20th century due to car manufacturing, the Second World War effort and a prospering salt brine industry, and its population rose precipitously.
But Saginaw’s fortunes eventually began to fade.
As companies moved operations to Mexico and Asia and amid the growing mechanisation of industry, blue-collar jobs evaporated. In the two decades to 2014, the county lost about half of its manufacturing jobs, though many have since been replaced by professional and business services positions.
Today, the city’s population is less than half its 1960s peak, when it stood at close to 100,000, marking one of the largest population declines of any major US city.
All this appeared to have fuelled the rise in popularity of Mr Trump, which has taken some in Saginaw County by surprise.
“Before Hillary [Clinton] lost, I thought Michigan was a solidly Democratic state,” Eduardo Morales, a retired teacher, told The National while out walking his dog on Saginaw’s Ojibway Island on a recent sunny Saturday morning.
He says that when Mr Biden came to Saginaw County this year to campaign, it was something of a failure.
“The gathering was in my neighbourhood, but only a selected few were invited,” he said. “I think it was by invitation only and when I looked it up on Facebook, there was like less than 50 people there. Then he went to a golf course, but it rained. They said it was a success, but I don’t know.”
Mr Morales’s father emigrated to the US from Mexico decades ago, and it is Mr Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants that has turned him off the former president.
However, he still has concerns about the ability of Vice President Kamala Harris – the Democratic nominee – to defeat Mr Trump in November.
“I’ll vote for whoever it is, but it’s sort of late in the game,” he said. “I can’t take another four years of Trump. It’s chaotic.”
For Brian Smith, who runs Smitty’s Smoke N’Soul Food van out of car parks along Dixie Highway in south-east Saginaw, Ms Harris becoming the Democratic nominee makes little difference.
“I don’t think a Democrat or a Republican is going to help the small guy, whether black, white or anything else,” he told The National.
“I know the tricks of the trades with the Democrats. They throw a lot of shiny objects in front of you to get you to vote, and then once they get in, they just sold you a dream. They’re not going to help you.
“As far as her going to do something for the poor or the middle class, [Ms Harris] is not going to do anything different than Biden did.”
The past several years of inflation have been near devastating to Mr Smith’s business. He says he cannot afford to hire help without raising prices that could turn customers away.
But he knows that rising costs are not the fault of the White House.
“Biden had nothing to do with the inflation,” he said. Instead, he blames the Trump administration for failing to properly address the pandemic and its knock-on effects.
Former president Barack “Obama had things in place to prepare for a pandemic. What did Trump do? He went back and destroyed all that,” Mr Smith said.
Other residents are also seething over the economic ills of the past, when the region saw thousands of manufacturing jobs lost when Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was president for eight years in the 1990s.
“NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] was disastrous for the automotive industry,” says Ms DeLisle. “So many of our jobs left here and went overseas.”
During Mr Trump's time in office, NAFTA was scrapped and a new agreement – the USMCA – replaced it in 2020.
She blames Democratic Party politicians for failing residents in this part of Michigan.
“When you have areas – Saginaw, Flint and Detroit – that are built on the back of General Motors, Chrysler, Ford and all those jobs are leaving at the hands of Democrats, that’s what happened,” Ms DeLisle said.
“Trump is the best choice for our area because of his policies. There is not a single person I know who is better off financially in 2024 than they were in 2018.”
Mr Smith, however, is upset by the double standards he believes unfairly favour Mr Trump over the regular working American.
In May, the former president was convicted on 34 felony counts connected to a hush-money scheme during his 2016 campaign. He has yet to be sentenced but is likely to face no time in prison.
After he was released, Mr Smith could not get a job.
“But here, Trump is going for the highest office in the land: [access to] national secrets, everything that comes with that job. He can do all that, but I can’t.”
He said he plans not to vote in November.
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
Retirement funds heavily invested in equities at a risky time
Pension funds in growing economies in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East have a sharply higher percentage of assets parked in stocks, just at a time when trade tensions threaten to derail markets.
Retirement money managers in 14 geographies now allocate 40 per cent of their assets to equities, an 8 percentage-point climb over the past five years, according to a Mercer survey released last week that canvassed government, corporate and mandatory pension funds with almost $5 trillion in assets under management. That compares with about 25 per cent for pension funds in Europe.
The escalating trade spat between the US and China has heightened fears that stocks are ripe for a downturn. With tensions mounting and outcomes driven more by politics than economics, the S&P 500 Index will be on course for a “full-scale bear market” without Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, Citigroup’s global macro strategy team said earlier this week.
The increased allocation to equities by growth-market pension funds has come at the expense of fixed-income investments, which declined 11 percentage points over the five years, according to the survey.
Hong Kong funds have the highest exposure to equities at 66 per cent, although that’s been relatively stable over the period. Japan’s equity allocation jumped 13 percentage points while South Korea’s increased 8 percentage points.
The money managers are also directing a higher portion of their funds to assets outside of their home countries. On average, foreign stocks now account for 49 per cent of respondents’ equity investments, 4 percentage points higher than five years ago, while foreign fixed-income exposure climbed 7 percentage points to 23 per cent. Funds in Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan are among those seeking greater diversification in stocks and fixed income.
• Bloomberg
more from Janine di Giovanni
Take Me Apart
Kelela
(Warp)
'Ghostbusters: From Beyond'
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace
Rating: 2/5
RACE CARD
6.30pm: Baniyas Group 2 (PA) Dh 97,500 (Dirt) 1,400m.
7.05pm Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,200m
7.40pm Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,400m
8.15pm Handicap (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,400m
8.50pm Rated Conditions (TB) Dh 120,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm Handicap (TB) Dh 95,000 (D) 1,200m
10pm Handicap (TB) Dh 85,000 (D) 2,000m
Race card for Super Saturday
4pm: Al Bastakiya Listed US$250,000 (Dh918,125) (Dirt) 1,900m.
4.35pm: Mahab Al Shimaal Group 3 $200,000 (D) 1,200m.
5.10pm: Nad Al Sheba Conditions $200,000 (Turf) 1,200m.
5.45pm: Burj Nahaar Group 3 $200,000 (D) 1,600m.
6.20pm: Jebel Hatta Group 1 $300,000 (T) 1,800m.
6.55pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round 3 Group 1 $400,000 (D) 2,000m.
7.30pm: Dubai City of Gold Group 2 $250,000 (T) 2,410m.
The specs: 2019 Mini Cooper
Price, base: Dh141,740 (three-door) / Dh165,900 (five-door)
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder (Cooper) / 2.0-litre four-cylinder (Cooper S)
Power: 136hp @ 4,500rpm (Cooper) / 192hp @ 5,000rpm (Cooper S)
Torque: 220Nm @ 1,480rpm (Cooper) / 280Nm @ 1,350rpm (Cooper S)
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 4.8L to 5.4L / 100km
The%C2%A0specs%20
%3Cp%3E%0D%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E6-cylinder%2C%204.8-litre%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E5-speed%20automatic%20and%20manual%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E280%20brake%20horsepower%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E451Nm%20%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Efrom%20Dh153%2C00%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3Enow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
TO ALL THE BOYS: ALWAYS AND FOREVER
Directed by: Michael Fimognari
Starring: Lana Condor and Noah Centineo
Two stars
Scoreline
Arsenal 3
Aubameyang (28'), Welbeck (38', 81')
Red cards: El Neny (90' 3)
Southampton 2
Long (17'), Austin (73')
Red cards: Stephens (90' 2)
Company profile
Company name: Dharma
Date started: 2018
Founders: Charaf El Mansouri, Nisma Benani, Leah Howe
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: TravelTech
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investors: Convivialite Ventures, BY Partners, Shorooq Partners, L& Ventures, Flat6Labs
The biog
Born: High Wycombe, England
Favourite vehicle: One with solid axels
Favourite camping spot: Anywhere I can get to.
Favourite road trip: My first trip to Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan. The desert they have over there is different and the language made it a bit more challenging.
Favourite spot in the UAE: Al Dhafra. It’s unique, natural, inaccessible, unspoilt.
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
EXPATS
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TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
Dubai Bling season three
Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed
Rating: 1/5
The specs: 2018 BMW X2 and X3
Price, as tested: Dh255,150 (X2); Dh383,250 (X3)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged inline four-cylinder (X2); 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six-cylinder (X3)
Power 192hp @ 5,000rpm (X2); 355hp @ 5,500rpm (X3)
Torque: 280Nm @ 1,350rpm (X2); 500Nm @ 1,520rpm (X3)
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic (X2); Eight-speed automatic (X3)
Fuel consumption, combined: 5.7L / 100km (X2); 8.3L / 100km (X3)
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')
Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
BRAZIL%20SQUAD
%3Cp%3EGoalkeepers%3A%20Alisson%2C%20Ederson%2C%20Weverton%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EDefenders%3A%20Dani%20Alves%2C%20Marquinhos%2C%20Thiago%20Silva%2C%20Eder%20Militao%20%2C%20Danilo%2C%20Alex%20Sandro%2C%20Alex%20Telles%2C%20Bremer.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EMidfielders%3A%20Casemiro%2C%20Fred%2C%20Fabinho%2C%20Bruno%20Guimaraes%2C%20Lucas%20Paqueta%2C%20Everton%20Ribeiro.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EForwards%3A%20Neymar%2C%20Vinicius%20Junior%2C%20Richarlison%2C%20Raphinha%2C%20Antony%2C%20Gabriel%20Jesus%2C%20Gabriel%20Martinelli%2C%20Pedro%2C%20Rodrygo%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Grubtech
Founders: Mohamed Al Fayed and Mohammed Hammedi
Launched: October 2019
Employees: 50
Financing stage: Seed round (raised $2 million)
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
