King Charles III will accede to the throne on Saturday

Queen Elizabeth II dies - follow the latest news as the world mourns

King Charles III is to formally accede to the role of monarch at a meeting of the accession council at St James's Palace in London on Saturday.

The new monarch will be known as King Charles III of the UK and 14 other realms, officials confirmed, hours after Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday, setting in motion his own period on the throne.

The accession council assembles to formally proclaim the accession of the successor to the throne. During the council, the monarch swears a sacred oath to the assembled "Lords Spiritual and Temporal of this Realm", declaring their Protestant faith, undertaking to maintain a Protestant succession, and promising to protect the Church of Scotland.

His wife will be known as the queen consort and Queen Camilla, fulfilling a wish made earlier this year by Queen Elizabeth on the 70th anniversary of her reign.

First in line to the throne

As first in line to the throne, the 73-year-old new British monarch has spent his whole life preparing for the role. He is the oldest British monarch to ascend to the throne.

“The death of my beloved mother, her majesty the queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” he said in statement.

“We mourn profoundly the passing of a cherished sovereign and a much-loved mother.”

The task to prepare him for his future role fell to his father, Prince Philip, the Greek-born consort and husband of Queen Elizabeth, who died two months short of his 100th birthday in 2021.

Michel Faure, author of Charles, King of England, published last year, said that Prince Philip had doubts about his son's fitness to reign. But he has shown signs of having overcome them.

With the queen concentrating on “taking care of the kingdom”, it fell to the duke to raise the royal children. Mr Faure said Prince Philip wanted to make his eldest son into a man.

Mr Faure says that, in many ways, the pressure paid off.

“As he got older, Charles began riding, took up the sports his father played, followed him into the Royal Navy,” he said.

“He began to trust himself and also earned some confidence from his father.”

Queen Elizabeth II with her son and heir, the Prince of Wales, during the platinum jubilee celebrations. AFP

Queen Camilla

Queen Elizabeth previously had a difficult relationship with Camilla, whom she used to call “that wicked woman”, biographer Tom Bower said.

She refused to attend Prince Charles and Camilla's civil ceremony in 2005 and it is said she did not to speak to her new daughter-in-law at the afternoon reception.

Much of the bad feeling came from Camilla's role in the breakdown of Prince Charles's marriage to Diana, Princess of Wales.

Biographer Sally Bedell Smith previously revealed the queen's fears over the divorce between her son and Diana but characteristically, it was not a topic that was much discussed in the monarch's close circles.

The American author and historian said the queen had devoted friends “in her own little bubble and own little world” but, while they would avail themselves of her guidance, it was not something she sought in “a different kind of friendship”.

“She tries to be amusing and she gives them very good advice, although they are very careful about not being presumptuous and calling upon her for that,” Bedell Smith said.

“She is very interested in their families and what is going on. But there is a kind of a scrim in front of her.

“They dare not really ask her about her personal feelings and personal life. She keeps a lot of that to herself.”

Bower said the queen had opposed the prince's long-time mistress from the beginning.

For years, she struggled with his adultery and could not forgive Camilla for not leaving her son alone to repair his marriage.

But, in time, the queen developed a fondness for Camilla, and, on the eve of the platinum jubilee, announced her wish for her to be known as “queen consort”, meaning Queen Camilla would be her title after her son became king.

At the time, the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall said they were “touched and honoured”.

Queen Elizabeth ascended to the British throne on February 6, 1952, after the death of her father, King George VI.

During her royal accession message, the queen promised a lifetime of public duty, saying “my life will always be devoted to your service”.

What happens now?

The successor, in this case Prince Charles, is “proclaimed as soon as possible at an accession council in St James's Palace”, according to the royal family's website.

“Formed of certain privy counsellors, great officers of state, the lord mayor and high sheriffs of the City of London, realm high commissioners, some senior civil servants and certain others invited to attend, the council is held (without the sovereign) to formally announce the death of the monarch and proclaim the succession of the new sovereign and to make certain consequential orders of council mainly relating to the proclamation,” it said.

After the proclamation, the sovereign reads out a declaration and takes the oath to preserve the Church of Scotland.

“The oath known as the accession declaration — an oath to maintain the established Protestant succession — is normally made at the next state opening of parliament,” it said.

In London, the public proclamation of the new sovereign is first read out at St James's Palace.

The proclamation is also read out publicly in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, usually at several different locations in those cities.

“If the monarch is under 18 on succeeding to the throne, there is provision for a regent to be appointed to perform the royal functions. This can also happen if the monarch is totally incapacitated.”

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To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.

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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

The biog

Name: Abeer Al Bah

Born: 1972

Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992

Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old

Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school

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.”

At a glance - Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020

Launched: 2008

Categories: Health, energy, water, food, global high schools

Prize: Dh2.2 million (Dh360,000 for global high schools category)

Winners’ announcement: Monday, January 13

Impact in numbers

335 million people positively impacted by projects

430,000 jobs created

10 million people given access to clean and affordable drinking water

50 million homes powered by renewable energy

6.5 billion litres of water saved

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January 24 – First T20, Lahore

January 25 – Second T20, Lahore

January 27 – Third T20, Lahore

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April 3 – One-off ODI, Karachi

April 5-9 – Second Test, Karachi

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Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council

Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south

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