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Less tax, more luxury: millionaires flock to Dubai

Rich people are flocking to Dubai in record numbers, drawn to the desert city by its zero income tax policy and easy luxury lifestyle that has become harder to maintain elsewhere.The United Arab Emirates and particularly Dubai have long welcomed wealthy people from nearby countries, and people helping millionaires to move there told AFP it is seeing more Westerners joining the fray.Advisory firm Henley & Partners estimates that the UAE will attract an unprecedented 9,800 millionaires this year — more than anywhere else in the world.The tightly-policed UAE has moulded itself into a magnet for the wealthy, offering economic and political stability with extremely low crime rates, an easygoing business environment and even easier access to luxury. The Gulf state’s golden visa scheme, meant to attract wealthy or skilled foreigners, allows individuals to obtain a 10-year residence permit. Mike Coady, who heads Skybound Wealth Management, an advisory firm for high-net-worth individuals, said some of his clients “feel like success has become a liability in their home countries”.”They’re being taxed more, scrutinised more, and offered less,” he said, but in Dubai, “wealth isn’t hidden, it’s normalised”.”In London, my clients whisper about their net worth. In Dubai, they can live freely.”A top destination for flashy influencers, Dubai has become synonymous with over-the-top displays of wealth.It is home to an enormous mall with an indoor ski area, the world’s tallest building, and the Palm — an artificial island dotted with five-star hotels.The rapid development into a world-leading playground for the rich has been met with criticism over gross inequalities as armies of low-paid migrant workers form the backbone of the economy.- ‘Very little red tape’ -Coady said his relocating clients were mostly professionals in their 30s and 40s, including tech founders, second-generation business owners, consultants and fund managers.One of them is the 42-year-old founder of a cloud software company who, fearing capital gains tax on its sale, had moved to the UAE from Britain — now a leading exporter of millionaires.Some are pushed out by a stricter taxation policy for people with “non-dom” status — those who live in Britain but whose permanent domicile is abroad and had benefitted from no tax on income earned outside the country.Put together with other looming changes to taxation and inheritance rules, and what Coady called “increasing anti-wealth rhetoric”, Britain is expected to lose a record 16,500 millionaires this year, according to Henley & Partners.The most high-profile departee this year, billionaire John Fredriksen, told Norwegian media he was moving to the UAE because “Britain has gone to hell”.Speaking on the “Building Wealth With No Borders” podcast about his move to Dubai, Max Maxwell, CEO of Paddco Real Estate, said: “We’re all chasing a lifestyle, whatever that means to everybody.”The self-described “serial entrepreneur” explained that after leaving the United States for the UAE, he found his family could enjoy “a better lifestyle than where we were” for the same amount of money.Philippe Amarante, of Henley & Partners in Dubai, said the wealthy seek to maintain their fortunes and lifestyle, and the ability to do business with “very little red tape”.And the UAE has positioned itself “with a very clear and simple message: we are open for business”, said Amarante.To Coady’s clients, “the UAE fits like a glove,” he said.- ‘Buy a whole building’ -The inflow of rich foreigners has not been without controversy, however.Emirati authorities have cracked down on money laundering after the UAE was put on a global “grey list” in 2022 over concerns about murky financial transactions and a flood of Russian money, as wealthy Russians flocked to the Gulf after the Ukraine invasion to escape crippling sanctions at home.The UAE has also extradited some wanted individuals, including drug barons, reversing the grey listing.The wealthy from all over the world are now taking their families, businesses and private offices with them to Dubai, “which is something new”, said Faisal Durrani, head of Middle East research at Knight Frank real estate consultancy firm.Dubai is already one of the world’s top 20 cities with the most millionaires, home to 81,200 of them as well as 20 billionaires, according to Henley & Partners.Overtaking New York and London combined, 435 homes worth $10 million or more were sold in Dubai last year — making it the busiest market for high-end properties, relatively affordable in the UAE compared to the West, Durrani said.He said buyers from places such as Monaco and Switzerland would come to the company seeking a Dubai apartment for $100 million, for example.”But in Dubai, for that price, you could buy a whole building.”

Palestinian camps in Lebanon begin disarming

Some armed Palestinian groups in Lebanese refugee camps began handing over their weapons to the authorities on Thursday after reaching a deal earlier this year, with Washington hailing the move as a “historic step”.The efforts at disarmament came after the Lebanese government, under US pressure, tasked the army with formulating a plan to also disarm the militant group Hezbollah by the end of the year.The Lebanese army took into its custody a number of weapons in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs.An AFP photographer saw a truck filled with weapons and ammunition transported from the camp to a nearby parking lot, where Lebanese army vehicles and personnel were deployed to inspect the cargo.”Today marks the beginning of the first phase of the process of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps,” Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee chairman Ramez Dimashkieh had said in an earlier statement.US envoy Tom Barrack offered his congratulations on the development, saying it marked “a historic step toward unity and stability, showing true commitment to peace and cooperation”.Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also welcomed the move, saying that the “process will be completed with the handover of additional batches in the coming weeks from Burj al-Barajneh and other camps”, according to a statement from his office.A Palestinian security official had told AFP on condition of anonymity that “Fatah will begin handing over its weapons in Burj al-Barajneh camp within the framework of the coordination with the Lebanese army”.Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who heads the Fatah movement, visited Beirut in May and reached an agreement with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that all arms in Palestinian camps would be surrendered to the state.A Palestinian security source at Burj al-Barajneh camp said “Fatah’s initiative in beginning to hand over weapons is symbolic, and came as a result of an agreement between Aoun and the Palestinian president’s son, Yasser Abbas, who is currently visiting Beirut”.It aims to “encourage the remaining (Palestinian armed) factions to take the same step”, the source said, noting that the other influential factions in the camp “have not yet decided to hand over their weapons”.The Palestinian Authority does not exercise power over the other factions in the camps, most notably Hamas.- ‘Illegitimate weapons’ -Lebanon has come under heavy US pressure to disarm Hamas’s ally Hezbollah after the Iran-backed Lebanese movement was dealt a massive blow during its war with Israel last year.That conflict was the culmination of a year of hostilities launched by Hezbollah in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, with many living in overcrowded camps outside of the state’s control.The Ain al-Hilweh camp near the southern city of Sidon, for instance, is the largest in the country and houses individuals wanted by the Lebanese authorities.The handover of weapons had been expected to begin in mid-June, but in an interview with Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya last week, Aoun attributed the delay to the Iran-Israel war that broke out that month, as well as to “internal considerations within the Palestinian Authority”.Badie al-Habet, a member of the Fatah leadership in Beirut, told AFP that Thursday would see the “turning over of illegitimate weapons in the hands of illegitimate individuals”.The weapons held by Palestinian security personnel in the refugee camps, however, were not included in the handover, he added.Palestinian armed factions including Hamas have repeatedly fired at Israel from Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war and the ensuing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November ceasefire sought to end.The ceasefire stipulated that only the Lebanese military would bear arms and that all forces would withdraw from the country’s south, with the exception of the army and UN peacekeepers.Israel has nonetheless continued to strike Lebanon regularly, and its troops still hold five positions in the south that it deems strategic.Hezbollah, meanwhile, has said it will resist efforts to disarm it.

Israel PM orders talks to free ‘all our hostages’ as army pounds Gaza City

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he had ordered immediate negotiations aimed at freeing all the remaining hostages in Gaza, as Israeli troops hammered the territory’s largest city ahead of a major planned offensive.The call for renewed talks came a day after the defence ministry approved a plan authorising the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists to help capture Gaza City, home to Hamas’s final stronghold.”I have come to approve the IDF’s (military’s) plans to take control of Gaza City and defeat Hamas,” the prime minister said in a video statement filmed during a visit to the Gaza division’s headquarters in Israel.”At the same time, I have instructed to immediately begin negotiations for the release of all our hostages and the end of the war under conditions acceptable to Israel.””These two matters — defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages — go hand in hand,” Netanyahu said, without providing details about what the next stage of talks would entail.Meditators have been waiting for days for an official Israeli response to their latest ceasefire proposal, which Hamas accepted earlier this week.Palestinian sources have said the new deal involves staggered hostage releases, while Israel has insisted that any deal see all the captives freed at once.Israel’s plans to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition, with the Red Cross joining the condemnation on Thursday, calling the moves “intolerable”.Ahead of the offensive, the Israeli military said the call-up of the reservists would begin in early September, adding the second phase of operation “Gideon’s Chariots” had begun.Earlier, Gaza City residents described relentless bombardments overnight.”The house shakes with us all night long — the sound of explosions, artillery, warplanes, ambulances, and cries for help is killing us,” Ahmad al-Shanti told AFP.  Another resident, Amal Abdel-Aal, said she watched the heavy strikes on the area, a week after being displaced from her home in Gaza City’s Al-Sabra neighbourhood. “No one in Gaza has slept — not last night, not for a week. The artillery and air strikes in the east never stop. The sky flashes all night long,” she added. – ‘We are advancing’ -A group of AFP journalists near Israel’s border with Gaza witnessed an air strike by a fighter jet on the northern outskirts of Gaza City on Thursday afternoon, with a massive explosion followed by a large plume of smoke rising into the sky. Several sporadic explosions were heard afterward but it was not possible to determine their origin. Strikes increased in pace later in the afternoon with several large explosions heard near the border. “We are advancing with the efforts toward operations in Gaza City,” military chief Eyal Zamir told troops on Thursday. “We already have troops operating on the outskirts of the city, and more forces will join them later on.” The UN humanitarian agency has warned that the Israeli plan to expand military operations in Gaza City would have “a horrific humanitarian impact” on an already exhausted population.The Israeli military said this week it had also begun informing medical personnel and aid groups in northern Gaza to start making evacuation plans and transferring their equipment to the south.   The Gaza health ministry, however, rejected that call on Thursday, saying it would not agree to “any step that would undermine what remains of the health system after the systematic destruction carried out by the occupation authorities”. – Awaiting a response -Israel and Hamas have held indirect negotiations throughout the nearly two-year conflict, paving the way for a pair of short ceasefires during which Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 2023 attack on southern Israel that triggered the war, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Sources from Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad told AFP that the latest ceasefire proposal calls for the release of 10 hostages and 18 bodies from Gaza. The remaining hostages would be released in a second phase alongside talks for a wider settlement.Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 48 people were killed on Thursday by Israeli attacks in various areas across the Palestinian territory, including several casualties in an air strike in Gaza City.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s offensive has killed over 62,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

Israel pounds Gaza City as military takes first moves in offensive

Israel hammered Gaza City and its outskirts overnight, residents said Thursday, as the military announced it had taken initial steps in its push to capture Hamas’s last major stronghold.The newly approved plan authorises the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, deepening fears the campaign will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.”We are not waiting. We have begun the preliminary actions, and already now, IDF (army) troops are holding the outskirts of Gaza City,” said the Israeli military.Israel’s plans to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City have sparked international outcry as well as domestic opposition. The Red Cross became the latest voice to condemn the plan on Thursday, calling it “intolerable”.Ahead of the offensive, the Israeli military said the call-up of the reservists would begin in early September, adding the second phase of operation “Gideon’s Chariots” had begun.Gaza City residents described relentless bombardments overnight.”The house shakes with us all night long — the sound of explosions, artillery, warplanes, ambulances, and cries for help is killing us,” one of them, Ahmad al-Shanti, told AFP.  “The sound is getting closer, but where would we go?”Another resident, Amal Abdel-Aal, said she watched the heavy strikes on the area, a week after being displaced from her home in Gaza City’s Al-Sabra neighbourhood. “No one in Gaza has slept — not last night, not for a week. The artillery and air strikes in the east never stop. The sky flashes all night long,” she added. Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said air strikes and artillery fire overnight targeted areas to the northwest and southeast of Gaza City.- ‘Nowhere safe to go’ -Late Wednesday, the Israeli military detailed a range of operations across the Gaza Strip in recent weeks.It said the manoeuvres and strikes “created the conditions” for the military to intensify pressure on Hamas and lay the groundwork for the next stages of the campaign. The UN humanitarian agency has warned the Israeli plan to expand military operations in Gaza City would have “a horrific humanitarian impact” on the already exhausted population.”Forcing hundreds of thousands to move south is a recipe for further disaster and could amount to forcible transfer,” OCHA said. The UN Human Rights office in the Palestinian territories also voiced concern.”Hundreds of families have been forced to flee, including many children, persons with disabilities, and older people, with nowhere safe to go,” it said.Others reportedly “remain trapped, completely cut off from food, water and medicine supplies”, it added.The Israeli military said this week it had also begun informing medical personnel and aid groups in northern Gaza to start making evacuation plans and transferring their equipment to the south.   As Israel tightened its grip on Gaza City’s outskirts, meditators continued to wait for an official Israeli reaction to their latest ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted earlier this week.- ‘Ball’ in Israel’s court -Israel and Hamas have held a string of indirect negotiations throughout the nearly two-year conflict, paving the way for a pair of short ceasefires during which Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.Of the 251 captives kidnapped during Hamas’s October 2023 onslaught on southern Israel that triggered the war, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.Sources from Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad told AFP this week that the latest ceasefire proposal calls for the release of 10 hostages and 18 bodies from Gaza.The remaining hostages would be released in a second phase alongside talks for a wider settlement.Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have overseen several rounds of shuttle diplomacy.Qatar said the latest proposal was “almost identical” to an earlier version approved by Israel, while Egypt said Monday that “the ball is now in its (Israel’s) court”.Late Wednesday, Hamas lambasted the plans to take control of Gaza City, saying in a statement it showed its “blatant disregard” for efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal.Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,122 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

Malnourished Gaza children facing death without aid, says UN

Severely malnourished children in the Gaza Strip will be “certainly condemned to death” unless aid gets to them quickly, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned Thursday.The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said hunger was particularly acute in the north — where Gaza City is — where an estimated one million people remain.Lazzarini said an evaluation on how famine has evolved in the Gaza Strip was due to be published soon, adding UNRWA health centres had seen a six-fold increase in the number of severely malnourished children since March.”If no measures are taken immediately, they are certainly condemned to death,” he told the Geneva Press Club.People in the Palestinian territory are already dying of hunger and “there will be more, there’s no doubt about it”, said Lazzarini.Rights group Amnesty International earlier this week accused Israel of enacting a “deliberate policy” of starvation in Gaza.Without naming Israel, Lazzarini labelled it a “manufactured famine” and said food had been used “as a weapon of war”.Israel heavily restricts aid coming into Gaza but has repeatedly rejected claims of deliberate starvation.Israel has announced a plan to take over Gaza City and has warned that the north of the territory will be evacuated.The UNRWA commissioner-general warned that a weakened, hungry population would struggle to withstand a new military operation in the city.”We had described hell on Earth in Gaza,” he said.”If this scenario were to unfold, even if we talk about the evacuation of people from Gaza to the south, many will no longer even have the strength to move.”

Palestinian camps in Lebanon to start disarming: committee

Armed Palestinian groups in refugee camps in Lebanon will start handing over their weapons to the authorities on Thursday, a joint committee said, following a deal reached in May.The announcement comes after the Lebanese government also tasked the army with formulating a plan to disarm the militant group Hezbollah by the end of the year.”Today marks the beginning of the first phase of the process of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps,” Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee chairman Ramez Dimashkieh said in a statement.The process would begin with the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut, where an initial batch of weapons would be placed in the custody of the Lebanese army, Dimashkieh added.An AFP photojournalist saw dozens of fighters in military fatigues holding Kalashnikov rifles as crowds gathered in front of the Beirut headquarters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement.A Palestinian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that “Fatah will begin handing over its weapons in Burj al-Barajneh camp within the framework of the coordination with the Lebanese army”.Abbas visited Beirut in May and reached an agreement with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that all arms in Palestinian camps would be surrendered to the state.A Palestinian security source at Burj al-Barajneh camp said “Fatah’s initiative in beginning to hand over weapons is symbolic, and came as a result of an agreement between Aoun and the Palestinian president’s son, Yasser Abbas, who is currently visiting Beirut”.It aims to “encourage the remaining (Palestinian armed) factions to take the same step”, the source said, noting that the other influential factions in the camp “have not yet decided to hand over their weapons”.The Palestinian Authority does not exercise power over the remaining factions in the camps, most notably Hamas.- ‘Illegitimate weapons’ -Lebanon has come under heavy US pressure to disarm Hamas’s ally Hezbollah after the Iran-backed Lebanese movement was dealt a massive blow during its war with Israel last year.That conflict was the culmination of a year of hostilities launched by Hezbollah in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, with many living in overcrowded camps outside of the state’s control.The Ain al-Hilweh camp near the southern city of Sidon, for instance, is the largest in the country and houses individuals wanted by the Lebanese authorities.The handover of weapons was expected to begin in mid-June, but in an interview with Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya last week, Aoun attributed the delay to the Iran-Israel war that broke out that month, as well as to “internal considerations within the Palestinian Authority”.Badie al-Habet, a member of the Fatah leadership in Beirut, told AFP that Thursday would see the “turning over of illegitimate weapons in the hands of illegitimate individuals”.The weapons held by Palestinian security personnel in the refugee camps, however, were not included in the handover, he added.Palestinian armed factions, including Hamas, have repeatedly fired at Israel from Lebanon since the start of the Gaza war and the ensuing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November ceasefire sought to end.The ceasefire stipulated that only the Lebanese military would bear arms and that all forces would withdraw from the country’s south, with the exception of the army and UN peacekeepers.Israel has nonetheless continued to strike Lebanon regularly, and its troops still hold five positions in the south that it deems strategic.Hezbollah, meanwhile, has said it will resist efforts to disarm it.