US President Joe Biden will meet the British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and have tea with King Charles at Windsor Castle on Monday during a stopover visit to the UK.
Mr Biden arrived at Stansted Airport late on Sunday evening on his way to the two-day Nato summit in Lithuania on Tuesday.
At Windsor Castle, he will receive a Guard of Honour and the Band of the Welsh Guards will play the US national anthem.
The king will accompany Mr Biden to inspect the Guard before watching the military march past, before both men have tea together.
They will also join delegates at the Climate Finance Mobilisation Forum, being held on Monday.
The forum brings together finance and philanthropic leaders from the UK and the US to strengthen their commitments to climate action in emerging markets and developing economies.
But Mr Biden's decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine could overshadow his visit to the UK.
The Democrat leader will leave behind criticism over his latest choice of ammunition for Kyiv, which has led to furious members of his own party trying to block it.
The White House on Friday announced that Mr Biden had approved the transfer of cluster bombs to Ukraine.
Mr Sunak has declined to back him up, stressing that Britain “discourages” the use of such weapons.
Lord Ricketts, the UK’s first national security adviser, told Sky News that Nato allies were “all very uncomfortable with this” decision.
“It is a hard choice of the kind that countries have to make in wartime,” he said. “I am uncomfortable with it. Yes, I wish it wasn’t being done, but I think we can understand why they are doing it.”
US President Joe Biden visits the UK - in pictures
Labour's shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves told Sky News that cluster bombs were not “appropriate weapons” to send to Ukraine.
The UK is one of more than 120 signatories to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the manufacturing, use, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions.
The US, Ukraine and Russia are not signatories of the international convention.
Campaigners say civilians account for the vast majority of casualties caused by such weapons.
Unexploded cluster munitions from decades ago are still lying dormant in Vietnam and Laos, according to the Cluster Munition Coalition.
The activist group, which is trying to have the weapons banned everywhere, say they are dropped from aircraft or fired from the ground or sea, opening in mid-air to release hundreds of submunitions that can saturate an area the size of several football pitches.
The coalition said sometimes “large numbers of the submunitions fail to function as designed, and instead land on the ground without exploding, where they remain as very dangerous duds”.
Barbara Lee, a Democrat congresswoman representing California, condemned Mr Biden’s decision, saying she was alarmed at the thought of cluster munitions being used in Ukraine.
“The US and Ukraine don’t need to stoop to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s level,” Ms Lee tweeted.
Democrats representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Sara Jacobs of California on Friday introduced an amendment that would effectively block the transfer of these munitions.
“The innocent victims of the cluster munitions will almost exclusively be Ukrainian civilians,” Ms Omar said.
She said the use of cluster bombs was a breach of human rights.
“We have to be clear: if the US is going to be a leader on international human rights, we must not participate in human rights abuses,” Ms Omar said.
Bill Richardson, who was energy secretary and UN ambassador during the administration of president Bill Clinton, also voiced his disapproval of Mr Biden’s latest move.
Mr Richardson told CNN he would have advised Mr Biden against the decision if he was in his administration.
“I worry about civilians, non-combatants getting exposed to this,” he said. “So I’m concerned. I don’t know who advised the President on this.”
Mr Sunak and Mr Biden put on a united front at a joint press conference at the White House last month. But behind the scenes there are tensions.
The US leader is understood to have blocked UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace's bid to become Nato's next secretary general over the fact that he once served as a British soldier in Northern Ireland.
Mr Biden, who has Irish ancestry, has made no secret of his support for Ireland and has been accused by some figures of showing a hatred for Britain.
US donations of cluster bombs for Ukraine are likely to feature heavily in discussions between Nato's 31 member states.
What is type-1 diabetes
Type 1 diabetes is a genetic and unavoidable condition, rather than the lifestyle-related type 2 diabetes.
It occurs mostly in people under 40 and a result of the pancreas failing to produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugars.
Too much or too little blood sugar can result in an attack where sufferers lose consciousness in serious cases.
Being overweight or obese increases the chances of developing the more common type 2 diabetes.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SPECS
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MATCH INFO
West Ham United 2 (Antonio 73', Ogbonna 90 5')
Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 36', Moura 42', Kane 49')
TEAMS
EUROPE:
Justin Rose, Francesco Molinari, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson
USA:
Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Webb Simpson, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau ( 1 TBC)
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
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 Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
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%3Cp%3EMinisterial%20experience%3A%20Current%20Foreign%20Secretary.%0D%3Cbr%3E%0DWhat%20did%20she%20do%20before%20politics%3F%20Worked%20as%20an%20economist%20for%20Shell%20and%20Cable%20and%20Wireless%20and%20was%20then%20a%20deputy%20director%20for%20right-of-centre%20think%20tank%20Reform.%0D%3Cbr%3E%0DWhat%20does%20she%20say%20on%20tax%3F%20She%20has%20pledged%20to%20%22start%20cutting%20taxes%20from%20day%20one%22%2C%20reversing%20April's%20rise%20in%20National%20Insurance%20and%20promising%20to%20keep%20%22corporation%20tax%20competitive%22.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
