RELATED: How Princess of Wales came a cropper in photo storm
Kate, Princess of Wales has apologised for confusion created by a digitally altered family photograph that was released to mark Mother’s Day.
The image of the princess and her children, taken by the Prince of Wales, was the first to be issued since her abdominal surgery in January.
It was published by Kensington Palace on Sunday, before being withdrawn hours later by international agencies through a so-called kill notice, due to suspicions it had been manipulated. The Press Association recalled the photo on Monday.
Agencies have become increasingly alert to manipulated images due to the proliferation of AI-generated content. Royal commentators said the PR failing could fuel speculation over Kate's health when the royal family was actually trying to dispel such rumours.
In the picture, a smiling Princess of Wales was shown posing with her beaming children Prince George, Prince Louis and Princess Charlotte in Windsor, where the family live.
Kensington Palace said the photo had been taken by her husband, heir to the throne Prince William, last week.
Concerns were raised over a missing part of Princess Charlotte's sleeve and the misaligned edge of her skirt, with speculation including the misaligned positioning of Kate's zip.
There were also peculiarities over the alignment of the Princess of Wales's face, Princess Charlotte's hair, a step in the background and the pattern on Prince George's jumper.
The Princess of Wales, 42, on Monday released a statement on social media to apologise, which said: "Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing.
"I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother's Day. C."
The picture was released to reassure the public amid escalating conspiracy theories online over the state of the princess's health in recent weeks, but the controversy – referred to as "Kategate" and "Sleevegate" – has been labelled an "extraordinary" turn of events.
Royal sources told news agencies the Princess of Wales made "minor adjustments" and the couple wanted to offer an informal picture of their family together for Mother's Day.
"The Wales family spent Mother's Day together and had a wonderful day," the source added.
Kensington Palace, which has said it will not be reissuing the original unedited photograph, has come under growing pressure over the debacle, with the controversy branded "damaging" to public trust of the royal family.
The princess underwent planned abdominal surgery for a non-cancerous but unspecified condition in January, with Kensington Palace saying at the time she would not return to public duties until after Easter.
Her office has said she was recovering well but her absence has led to intense speculation about her health on social media in recent weeks.
Prince William recently pulled out of a memorial service for the late former King Constantine of Greece, where he had been due to give a reading, due to what Kensington Palace called a "personal matter".
'Fuelling speculation'
Royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told The National the release of the image was “embarrassing” for the royal family.
"The reason that it’s been done is to quash rumours, which of course will be restarted, and also on a worldwide basis," he said. "That’s what the problem has been. Because when William pulled out of the memorial service, what you had afterwards was it became an international [story].
"When the princess does resume royal duties, this will probably be largely forgotten. But for the moment there is so much trolling online and with a lot of undesirable activity, including paparazzi."
He added: "It will fuel speculation, which is the last thing it was meant to do."
Meg Coffey, a media commentator and social media expert, told The National a kill notice was "as bad as it gets".
"A kill notice is stop distribution, remove it from everything you have got it published from, remove it, delete it. That photo is never to be used again," she said.
"And they don’t just issue a kill notice lightly. AP and Reuters are the gold standard. So if they issue a kill notice, it’s bad. It means there is a fundamental issue with this image that breaks ethical standards."
We’re at a scary time in media and the royal family, they hold a really important position. They of all people should know the importance of truth and they should not be releasing manipulated images
Meg Coffey,
media commentator
She said news agencies have to be strict due to the advent of AI and recent launch of the new text-to-video tool Sora, meaning that people need to be able to trust what they receive from a source like Reuters.
Ms Coffey said: "We’re at a scary time in media and the royal family, they hold a really important position. They of all people should know the importance of truth and they should not be releasing manipulated images."
"You can’t have a photo that has been manipulated to mark a historical moment of a historical figure."
And when you start doctoring images, it calls into question your credibility, said Ms Coffey.
"There is a lot of questioning about what is going on with her at the moment," she added.
"And from a 'crisis coms' point of view, releasing an image which got a kill notice is not doing anyone any favours when it comes to conspiracy theories."
Public relations and crisis consultant Mark Borkowski called the fiasco a "massive own goal" and said the unedited photograph should be released to regain trust.
He said: "It's plausible she's at home playing with the computer and using an AI tool, but if they're really going to regain any sort of trust they should release the unedited photo, it can't be that bad if they just made a few tweaks.
The controversy is set to overshadow the Commonwealth Day service, one of the key royal events of the year.
The Princess of Wales was seen for the first time since her operation last week, when, according to US news website TMZ, she was pictured near Windsor Castle in the passenger seat of a car.
She was wearing dark sunglasses in a black Audi, which was being driven by her mother Carole Middleton.
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.”
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
Types of bank fraud
1) Phishing
Fraudsters send an unsolicited email that appears to be from a financial institution or online retailer. The hoax email requests that you provide sensitive information, often by clicking on to a link leading to a fake website.
2) Smishing
The SMS equivalent of phishing. Fraudsters falsify the telephone number through “text spoofing,” so that it appears to be a genuine text from the bank.
3) Vishing
The telephone equivalent of phishing and smishing. Fraudsters may pose as bank staff, police or government officials. They may persuade the consumer to transfer money or divulge personal information.
4) SIM swap
Fraudsters duplicate the SIM of your mobile number without your knowledge or authorisation, allowing them to conduct financial transactions with your bank.
5) Identity theft
Someone illegally obtains your confidential information, through various ways, such as theft of your wallet, bank and utility bill statements, computer intrusion and social networks.
6) Prize scams
Fraudsters claiming to be authorised representatives from well-known organisations (such as Etisalat, du, Dubai Shopping Festival, Expo2020, Lulu Hypermarket etc) contact victims to tell them they have won a cash prize and request them to share confidential banking details to transfer the prize money.
The Vile
Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Rating: 4/5
Film: Raid
Dir: Rajkumar Gupta
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Ileana D'cruz and Saurabh Shukla
Verdict: Three stars
Kibsons%20Cares
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERecycling%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fstrong%3EAny%20time%20you%20receive%20a%20Kibsons%20order%2C%20you%20can%20return%20your%20cardboard%20box%20to%20the%20drivers.%20They%E2%80%99ll%20be%20happy%20to%20take%20it%20off%20your%20hands%20and%20ensure%20it%20gets%20reused%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EKind%20to%20health%20and%20planet%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ESolar%20%E2%80%93%2025-50%25%20of%20electricity%20saved%3Cbr%3EWater%20%E2%80%93%2075%25%20of%20water%20reused%3Cbr%3EBiofuel%20%E2%80%93%20Kibsons%20fleet%20to%20get%2020%25%20more%20mileage%20per%20litre%20with%20biofuel%20additives%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ESustainable%20grocery%20shopping%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ENo%20antibiotics%3Cbr%3ENo%20added%20hormones%3Cbr%3ENo%20GMO%3Cbr%3ENo%20preservatives%3Cbr%3EMSG%20free%3Cbr%3E100%25%20natural%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Overall standings
1. Christopher Froome (GBR/Sky) 68hr 18min 36sec,
2. Fabio Aru (ITA/AST) at 0:18.
3. Romain Bardet (FRA/ALM) 0:23.
4. Rigoberto Uran (COL/CAN) 0:29.
5. Mikel Landa (ESP/SKY) 1:17.
