America's next first lady will be Dr Jill Biden. The qualification is also referenced in her Twitter handle: @DrBiden. She has good reason and the right to use it, having received a research doctoral degree from a legitimate US university 13 years ago.
On November 7, the day the 2020 presidential election was called for Mr Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris, Dr Biden’s Twitter feed bore a photo of the future president and his wife holding up a sign in their living room. It read: Dr and vice president Biden live here.
The strikethrough of the word 'vice', Mr Biden’s second-string job in the two-term Obama administration, was the point. More than 30 years after Mr Biden first ran for the highest office in America, he finally prevailed.
His loving wife was recording a proud family moment, as well she might.
The photo was jokey and all too true. Indeed, it was Dr and President Biden who lived in their house in Wilmington, Delaware.
Soon, the doctor and her presidential spouse would move to a different residence, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, otherwise known as the White House.
Except that the conservative curmudgeon of the human species won’t have it. Joseph Epstein, 83, BA and an essayist of long-standing, recently advised Dr Biden, in a patronising opinion piece, to drop the title because it “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic”.
Mr Epstein even referred to the 69-year-old soon-to-be US first lady as “kiddo”. He went on to question her right to the medical-sounding qualification: “Your degree is, I believe, an Ed.D., a doctor of education, earned at the University of Delaware through a dissertation with the unpromising title ‘Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students’ Needs’,” Mr Epstein wrote. “A wise man once said that no one should call himself ‘Dr’ unless he has delivered a child. Think about it, Dr Jill, and forthwith drop the doc.”
The rebuke drew widespread academic angst and accusations of sexism, but it is hardly new or original, which is to say it might not serve as the ideal doctoral research topic. Mr Epstein's gripe against the doctor heading to the White House reprised a 2013 complaint by Charles C W Cooke in the conservative magazine National Review.
But is Dr Biden really pretending to something to which she has no right?
At the time Dr Biden was America’s second lady, which led Mr Cooke, who mockingly revealed having a BA and MA, to diagnose her “credential snobbery”. He also cast doubt on her “doctorate in ‘educational leadership’, whatever the hell that is”. Dr Biden, Mr Cooke concluded, is “not alone in having recognised the virtue of pretending to be a doctor in public”.
But is Dr Biden really pretending to something to which she has no right?
Jill Biden during her husband's first campaign event, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US, April, 29, 2019. EPA
The question has particular resonance for me as I received my non-medical doctorate three months ago. It is in creative and critical research and the topic was a mouthful: 'A critical investigation of the Platonic influence on early Arab philosophers’ notion of creative control'. People like Mr Cooke and Mr Epstein might respond, “whatever the hell that is”.
Sections of the medical community too, as happened in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2016, might question “who should be allowed to call themselves doctor?”
But the Canadian kerfuffle was not about non-medical doctoral degree holders such as Dr Biden. Or me.
At the time, an Ontario audiologist, a healthcare worker who wasn’t the type of doctor you see for a bad back, had asked for the legal right to use the title “Dr” on the strength of her research doctorate.
The Canadian view eventually veered towards laissez faire so "long as there is no intent to mislead patients, and all professionals are aware of their abilities and boundaries".
That seems to be a sensible way to look at the matter of who gets to use “Dr”. It is discretionary if you are not a medical doctor, the title being used mostly in academic settings.
A doctor of philosophy degree derives from the original Greek 'philosophia', meaning love of wisdom and from the Latin word 'docco', which means to teach.
In a sense, Dr Biden has a license to teach, something she has done for years, the last 11 of which were as a professor of English at Northern Virginia Community College.
That is exactly the sort of academic environment where a doctoral degree is recognised for what it is. Anyone who has earned a doctorate has the right to use the title as they see fit.
Rashmee Roshan Lall is a columnist for The National
How to apply for a drone permit
Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
Submit their request
What are the regulations?
Fly it within visual line of sight
Never over populated areas
Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
Should have a live feed of the drone flight
Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
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The Birkin bag is made by Hermès.
It is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin
Noone from Hermès will go on record to say how much a new Birkin costs, how long one would have to wait to get one, and how many bags are actually made each year.
Alastair Cook, Mark Stoneman, James Vince, Joe Root (captain), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Craig Overton, Stuart Broad, James Anderson
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024. It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine. Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages]. The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts. With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians. Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved. Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world. The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
