New EU and US sanctions unveiled on Tuesday restrict sales of arms and equipment for the oil industry, while Russian state banks are barred from raising money in Western capital markets. Banks said they would seek financing in Asia instead.
Moscow called the sanctions “destructive and myopic” and said Europe and the US would suffer.
On Wednesday, it banned imports of Polish fruit and vegetables and said it might expand the ban to the entire EU, but denied it was linked to the EU sanctions. The new Western sanctions mark the first time Washington and Brussels have adopted measures designed to hurt the overall Russian economy, after weeks of narrow steps targeting only specific individuals blamed for Russia’s Ukraine policy.
“Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the sanctions that we’ve already imposed have made a weak Russian economy even weaker,” US president Barack Obama said in Washington on Tuesday. “If Russia continues on this current path, the costs on Russia will continue to grow.”
German economy minister and vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said the measures would hurt the European economy but would hurt Russia more. The price was worth paying, he added: “At a time of war and peace, economic policy is not the main consideration.”
The Russian Central Bank said it could support banks that were hit by sanctions. Russia’s second-largest bank, VTB, said it would find funding outside of the EU and United States, using currencies other than euros and dollars.
But bankers said Russian firms had been effectively frozen out of global lending, and not just in the West, leaving the Russian state as their only source of funding.
The first European economic victims of the trade war were Polish apple growers, who sell more than half their exports to Russia. Moscow is by far the biggest importer of EU fruit and vegetables, buying more than 2 billion euros’ worth a year.
Denying a link to the EU sanctions, Russia said it was banning most Polish fruit and vegetables for sanitary reasons and would look into expanding the ban to the rest of the EU.
The Polish agriculture ministry said the embargo “amounts to political repression in response to the sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia”, and said it would seek compensation from the EU.The sanctions are intended to persuade president Vladimir Putin to back down from a months-long campaign to seize territory and disrupt Ukraine, an ex-Soviet state of 45 million where a pro-Russian president was toppled in February.
But Mr Putin, whose popularity at home has surged since he annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in March, has shown no sign of backing down from support for the rebellion in parts of Ukraine that he has referred to as “new Russia”.
Before the Malaysian airliner was shot down, it seemed difficult to get EU countries to agree tighter sanctions – the European Union does 10 times as much trade with Russia as the United States does, and requires unanimity among its 28 members.
But the downing of the plane en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur changed the equation. Two-thirds of the victims were Dutch, turning the Netherlands – the biggest importer of Russian oil bound for the rest of the EU – into a strong supporter of tough measures against Moscow.
The EU sanctions have nevertheless been crafted so as to inflict the minimum hardship on Europe.
Russia’s oil industry has been targeted but not the natural gas that fuels European industry and lights its cities. Existing contracts are excluded from the arms embargo, allowing France to move ahead with delivery of a warship it has already sold to the Russian navy.
Still, big Western companies, especially in the energy sector, will feel pain. Britain’s BP, the largest foreign investor in Russia with nearly 20 per cent stake oil company Rosneft, said its business could be hurt.
French oil major Total, which owned 18 per cent of Russian joint venture partner Novatek at the end of June, said on Wednesday it halted buying Novatek shares the day of the plane crash. In April, Total had predicted the Novatek venture would make Russia its biggest source of oil and gas by 2020.
Although Europe buys huge amounts of oil and gas from Russia, its exports to Russia are far more limited. Nevertheless, it is vulnerable to pressure in particular sectors, such as German manufacturing and British financial and legal services.
* Reuters, with additional reporting from Agence France-Presse
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Company%20Profile
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Company%20Profile
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Company%20Profile
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Book%20Details
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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MATCH INFO
Borussia Dortmund 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Kimmich 43')
Man of the match: Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich)
PRISCILLA
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if you go
The flights
Emirates have direct flights from Dubai to Glasgow from Dh3,115. Alternatively, if you want to see a bit of Edinburgh first, then you can fly there direct with Etihad from Abu Dhabi.
The hotel
Located in the heart of Mackintosh's Glasgow, the Dakota Deluxe is perhaps the most refined hotel anywhere in the city. Doubles from Dh850
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Events and tours
There are various Mackintosh specific events throughout 2018 – for more details and to see a map of his surviving designs see glasgowmackintosh.com
For walking tours focussing on the Glasgow Style, see the website of the Glasgow School of Art.
More information
For ideas on planning a trip to Scotland, visit www.visitscotland.com
Company%20profile
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Inside%20Out%202
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EKelsey%20Mann%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%C2%A0Amy%20Poehler%2C%20Maya%20Hawke%2C%20Ayo%20Edebiri%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
How%20to%20avoid%20getting%20scammed
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Five expert hiking tips
- Always check the weather forecast before setting off
- Make sure you have plenty of water
- Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
- Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
- Take your litter home with you
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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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.”
Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha
Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Rating: 2.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan