The EU is preparing a mass vaccination campaign this week as Covid-19 continues to surge across Europe.
Hungary stole a march on other member states as it began inoculations on Saturday, a day before campaigns in several other countries including France, Germany and Spain.
About 450 million people live in the bloc.
Hungary administered the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech to frontline workers at hospitals in the capital, Budapest.
Its first shipment of the vaccine has enough doses to inoculate 4,875 people.
The first worker to receive the shot was Adrienne Kertesz, a doctor at Del-Pest Central Hospital.
“We are very happy that the vaccine is here,” Zsuzsa and Antal Takacs, a couple aged 68 and 75, said while playing table tennis in a Budapest park.
“We will get the vaccination because our daughter had a baby in France last month and we want to go to see them. We do not dare travel before we get the vaccine,” Ms Takacs said.
The Hungarian programme began a day before countries including France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Portugal and Spain planned to begin mass vaccinations, starting with health workers.
The distribution of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot presents tough challenges. The vaccine uses new mRNA genetic technology, which means it must be stored at an ultra-low temperature of about -80 degrees Celsius.
France, which received its first shipment of the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Saturday, will start administering it on Sunday in the greater Paris area and in the Burgundy-Franche-Comte region.
“We have 19,500 doses in total, which amounts to 3,900 vials. These doses will be stored in our freezer at minus 80 degrees and will be then distributed to different nursing homes and hospitals,” said Franck Huet, head of pharmaceutical products for the Paris public hospital system.
The French government hopes to vaccinate about one million nursing home residents during January and February, followed by a further 14 to 15 million people in the wider population between March and June.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved by the French medical regulator on Thursday.
France reported more than 20,000 new Covid-19 infections on Friday for the second day running, something not seen since November 20. The seven-day moving average of daily new cases, which evens out reporting irregularities, is at a one-month high of 14,969.
France’s number of confirmed Covid-19 cases now exceeds 2.5 million, the fifth-highest tally in the world, while its Covid-19 death toll stands at 62,573, the seventh-highest.
In a concerning development, the health ministry said on Friday that a man who recently arrived from London had tested positive for a new variant of the virus that has been spreading rapidly in southern England and is thought to be more infectious.
In Spain, Madrid health authorities said on Saturday they had confirmed four cases of the new variant, as the country received its first deliveries of the vaccine.
The boxes arrived by lorry at a storage centre near Madrid as dawn broke. Employees at Spain’s medicines agency unpacked the vaccine, which is stored in dry ice, with gloved hands.
“Vaccination will start tomorrow in Spain, co-ordinated with the rest of Europe,” Health Minister Salvador Illa wrote on Twitter. “This is the beginning of the end of the pandemic.”
Doses will be taken by air to the Spanish islands and the North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, and by road to other regions of the country, in which about 50,000 people have died of Covid-19.
Germany said lorries were delivering the vaccine to care homes for the elderly, which are first in line to receive the vaccine on Sunday.
The number of confirmed infections in the country rose by 14,455 to 1,627,103, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Saturday. About 30,000 people have died in total.
The federal government is planning to distribute more than 1.3 million vaccine doses to local health authorities by the end of this year and about 700,000 per week from January.
“There may be a few hiccups at one point or another in the beginning, but that is quite normal when such a logistically complex process begins,” said Health Minister Jens Spahn.
In Portugal, a truck escorted by police dropped off the first batch of Covid-19 jabs at a warehouse in the country’s central region. From there, about 10,000 shots will be delivered to five big hospitals.
“It is a historic milestone for all of us, an important day after such a difficult year,” Health Minister Marta Temido told reporters outside the warehouse.
“A window of hope has now opened, without forgetting that there is a very difficult fight ahead.”
The specs
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Transmission: seven-speed
Power: 620bhp
Torque: 760Nm
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Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Abu Dhabi card
5pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 2,400m
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 2,200m
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The National selections:
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6.30pm: Maqam
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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
Zayed Sustainability Prize
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The%20specs
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – UAE won by 36 runs
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
How to increase your savings
- Have a plan for your savings.
- Decide on your emergency fund target and once that's achieved, assign your savings to another financial goal such as saving for a house or investing for retirement.
- Decide on a financial goal that is important to you and put your savings to work for you.
- It's important to have a purpose for your savings as it helps to keep you motivated to continue while also reducing the temptation to spend your savings.
- Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
How it works
A $10 hand-powered LED light and battery bank
Device is operated by hand cranking it at any time during the day or night
The charge is stored inside a battery
The ratio is that for every minute you crank, it provides 10 minutes light on the brightest mode
A full hand wound charge is of 16.5minutes
This gives 1.1 hours of light on high mode or 2.5 hours of light on low mode
When more light is needed, it can be recharged by winding again
The larger version costs between $18-20 and generates more than 15 hours of light with a 45-minute charge
No limit on how many times you can charge
