US President Donald Trump promised a “more peaceful and prosperous” future for the Middle East on Tuesday as he gave his first address to Congress since returning to office, in a lengthy speech filled with campaign-style promises.
The nearly two-hour address underscored the deep divisions in American politics, with Republicans greeting most of Mr Trump's remarks with thunderous applause, while Democratic politicians repeatedly taunted him with hand-held signs accusing him of lying. One politician was escorted out after heckling Mr Trump.
“America is back,” Mr Trump declared to the joint session Congress. “We are just getting started.”
Mr Trump's second term has been marked by an unrelenting series of presidential decrees that have sought to undo many of his predecessor Joe Biden's policies.
He has launched a landslide of court-challenged executive orders, crackdowns on the press and a trade war with allies Canada and Mexico. He has also hired Elon Musk to cull the federal workforce and slash government expenditures.
Mr Trump announced that the US government is extraditing a suspect in the deadly Abbey Gate bombing in the final days of the Afghanistan withdrawal that killed 13 American troops.
The White House identified the man as Muhammed Sharifullah and said he was on his way to the US to face charges.
The address came after Arab leaders rallied in Cairo to craft their counter to the Trump administration's Gaza plan. Mr Trump has endorsed a US “takeover” in Gaza, and on Tuesday praised the Abraham Accords as a model for peace building in the region.
“We're going to build on that foundation to create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region, a lot of things are happening in the Middle East,” Mr Trump said.
He reiterated his calls to build a “Golden Dome,” modelled after Israel's US-funded Iron Dome missile defence system.
“It's a very, very important this is a very dangerous world. We should have it. We want to be protected. And we're going to protect our citizens like never before, to boost our defence industrial base,” said Mr Trump.
At the weekend, the administration circumvented Congress to green light billions of dollars in additional arms sales to the Israelis – a decision Republicans on the Hill have largely justified.
Ahead of the address, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told The National that the State Department's decision to circumvent his legislative chamber and expedite the $4 billion arms sales to Israel was “well within the President's authority.”
“They have discretion on some of these funds and how to use them,” he added.
In a show of solidarity with Mr Trump's role in clinching the ceasefire and hostage release deal, Mr Johnson brought Noa Argamani, who was held hostage by Hamas for nearly 250 days, as a guest to the address.
On Ukraine, Mr Trump said he is “working tirelessly to end the savage conflict”, and spoke out against Europe's energy relationship with Moscow.
“The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defence. Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine – by far,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump cut off aid to Ukraine this week after he and Vice President JD Vance admonished Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the White House Oval Office.
The dispute saw Mr Trump angrily accuse Mr Zelenskyy of gambling with World War Three, absent territorial concessions to Russia, and upended a mineral deal that was scheduled to have been signed.
Mr Trump read out a letter he received earlier on Tuesday from Mr Zelenskyy, saying that the wartime president wants to come back to the table.
“We’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace,” Mr Trump said. “Wouldn’t that be beautiful?
Mr Trump, whose business interests in Russia date back to the 1980s, has been speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin about a potential peace deal. Criticism of Mr Zelenskyy and an apparent sympathy to Mr Putin is being seen by many as the biggest realignment of American foreign policy in decades.
Mr Johnson told The National that the decision to halt assistance to Ukraine does not violate the separation of powers, assuring the move was a “temporary pause” and a “strategic move”.
Mr Trump's address centred on his domestic policy blitz, including extended applause for his crackdowns on diversity initiatives and immigration, and a call on the Congress to increase funding for his campaign to deport undocumented immigrants and finish building the wall at the southern border with Mexico.
Fired federal workers impacted by the administrative purge joined Democrats as guests to the address, while several Democrats in both the Senate and House of Representatives, including progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, skipped the address.
Profile Periscope Media
Founder: Smeetha Ghosh, one co-founder (anonymous)
Launch year: 2020
Employees: four – plans to add another 10 by July 2021
Financing stage: $250,000 bootstrap funding, approaching VC firms this year
Investors: Co-founders
STAR%20WARS%20JEDI%3A%20SURVIVOR
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MATCH INFO
Hoffenheim v Liverpool
Uefa Champions League play-off, first leg
Location: Rhein-Neckar-Arena, Sinsheim
Kick-off: Tuesday, 10.45pm (UAE)
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
Key findings
- Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
- Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase.
- People who ate breakfast experienced a relative decrease in their BMI compared with “breakfast-skippers”.
- Those who turned the eating day on its head to make breakfast the biggest meal of the day, did even better.
- But scrapping dinner altogether gave the best results. The study found that the BMI of subjects who had a long overnight fast (of 18 hours or more) decreased when compared even with those who had a medium overnight fast, of between 12 and 17 hours.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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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.”
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
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%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20Salha%20Al%20Busaidy%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPages%3A%20316%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EPublisher%3A%20The%20Dreamwork%20Collective%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Marathon results
Men:
1. Titus Ekiru(KEN) 2:06:13
2. Alphonce Simbu(TAN) 2:07:50
3. Reuben Kipyego(KEN) 2:08:25
4. Abel Kirui(KEN) 2:08:46
5. Felix Kemutai(KEN) 2:10:48
Women:
1. Judith Korir(KEN) 2:22:30
2. Eunice Chumba(BHR) 2:26:01
3. Immaculate Chemutai(UGA) 2:28:30
4. Abebech Bekele(ETH) 2:29:43
5. Aleksandra Morozova(RUS) 2:33:01
