Talk Elections

Saudi Arabia has joined Bahrain in severing all ties with the State of Qatar in the latest developments of Doha’s widening rift with its Gulf neighbors, a statement from Saudi Press Agency has confirmed.

Donald J. Trump‏
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump  1h

During my recent trip to the Middle East I stated that there can no longer be funding of Radical Ideology. Leaders pointed to Qatar - look!

Donald J. Trump‏
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump  16m

So good to see the Saudi Arabia visit with the King and 50 countries already paying off. They said they would take a hard line on funding...

Donald J. Trump‏
Verified account
@realDonaldTrump  8m

...extremism, and all reference was pointing to Qatar. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end to the horror of terrorism!

US investigators believe Russian hackers breached Qatar's state news agency and planted a fake news report that contributed to a crisis among the US' closest Gulf allies, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.

The FBI recently sent a team of investigators to Doha to help the Qatari government investigate the alleged hacking incident, Qatari and US government officials say.

Intelligence gathered by the US security agencies indicates that Russian hackers were behind the intrusion first reported by the Qatari government two weeks ago, US officials say. Qatar hosts one of the largest US military bases in the region.

The alleged involvement of Russian hackers intensifies concerns by US intelligence and law enforcement agencies that Russia continues to try some of the same cyber-hacking measures on US allies that intelligence agencies believe it used to meddle in the 2016 elections.

US officials say the Russian goal appears to be to cause rifts among the US and its allies. In recent months, suspected Russian cyber activities, including the use of fake news stories, have turned up amid elections in France, Germany and other countries

The government of Qatar has hired John Ashcroft, the U.S. attorney general during the Sept. 11 attacks, as it seeks to rebut accusations from U.S. President Donald Trump and its Arab neighbors that it supports terrorism.

Qatar will pay the Ashcroft Law Firm $2.5 million for a 90-day period as the country seeks to confirm its efforts to fight global terrorism and comply with financial regulations including U.S. Treasury rules, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, filing on Friday with the Justice Department.

Saudi Arabia and Israel are holding talks to establish diplomatic ties, the Times reported on Saturday.According to American and Arab sources, the countries will begin with small measures like allowing Israeli aircraft to fly over Saudi airspace and permitting Israeli businesses to operate in the Gulf state, the UK-based Times reported.

A public alliance between the two countries would be the first of its kind though Israel did have a trade office in Doha before it was closed in 2009, during the Gaza war. Saudi sources denied that the Gulf state is improving its ties with Israel, the report stated.

The talks come amid an ongoing diplomatic crisis between Qatar and the Arab Gulf states over accusations of terrorist funding.

While Israel and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic ties, they are seen as sharing regional security interests particularly over Iran. Israel has long viewed the Islamic Republic as one of its main threats in the region, while Sunni Saudi Arabia considers the Shi'ite nation as a contender for dominance in the Middle East.

Ashley Killough‏ Verified account @KilloughCNN

As Al Jazeera America tried asking Trump a Q tonight, he said, "you guys are out of business!" and moved on.

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DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister called what he said was Qatar's demand for an internationalization of the Muslim hajj pilgrimage a declaration of war against the kingdom, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television said on Sunday, but Qatar said it never made such a call.

"Qatar's demands to internationalize the holy sites is aggressive and a declaration of war against the kingdom," Adel al-Jubeir was quoted saying on Al Arabiya's website.

"We reserve the right to respond to anyone who is working on the internationalization of the holy sites," he said.

Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said no official from his country had made such a call.

"We are tired of responding to false information and stories invented from nothing," Sheikh Mohammed told Al Jazeera TV.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday its aircraft have not been given permission to land in Doha to pick up Qatari pilgrims for the annual hajj after the king authorized flights to transport people to Mecca.

Saudi Arabia reopened its border with Qatar last week to allow Qataris to attend the hajj amid a monthslong rift between the neighboring countries. King Salman also authorized Saudi planes to transport pilgrims at his expense. Already, more than 100 Qataris have crossed into Saudi Arabia since the border was opened.

But Saleh al-Jasser, the general manger of Saudi Arabian Airlines, was quoted by Saudi state TV as saying Qatari authorities have not authorized the kingdom's aircraft to land in the capital, despite a request submitted several days ago to transport Qatari pilgrims from Hamad International Airport in Doha.

Qatar's foreign minister said his country welcomed the decision to facilitate the hajj for Qataris, however the moves do not appear to have been coordinated with Qatar's government.

In early June, Saudi Arabia sealed Qatar's only land border. The kingdom, along with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt also cut all diplomatic and transport links with Qatar, including barring direct flights between the countries. They also blocked Qatari flights from using their airspace.

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera reported that the small Gulf country filed a complaint to the International Civil Aviation Organization against attempts to "terrorize" travelers flying on Qatari Airways.

The complaint pointed to a report by the Saudi-owned Al Arabiya news channel that shows a simulation of a fighter jet forcing a Qatar Airways flight to land if it enters the quartet's airspace. The video says that these countries have the right to use force if necessary, and shows a bomb striking an unmarked aircraft.

Saudi police have released without charge a 14-year-old boy who was detained after a video of him dancing the Macarena on a busy road went viral.

The interior ministry said the teenager had signed a pledge that he would "not engage in behavior that could endanger his life and the life of others again".

It did not name him, but said he was a national of another Arab state.

In the 45-second clip filmed last year, he is seen disrupting traffic on a five-lane road in the city of Jeddah.

Wearing a pair of headphones, he moves his hips and arms to the 1990s hit.


On Tuesday, after the footage resurfaced and was shared widely on social media, the teenager was summoned by police in the city of Mecca for questioning about his "improper public behavior".

The decision was denounced by many on Twitter as a "violation of childhood" and on Wednesday the interior ministry said the boy had been released from custody after signing the written pledge

Fresh evidence submitted in a major 9/11 lawsuit moving forward against the Saudi Arabian government reveals its embassy in Washington may have funded a “dry run” for the hijackings carried out by two Saudi employees, further reinforcing the claim employees and agents of the kingdom directed and aided the 9/11 hijackers and plotters.

Two years before the airliner attacks, the Saudi Embassy paid for two Saudi nationals, living undercover in the US as students, to fly from Phoenix to Washington “in a dry run for the 9/11 attacks,” alleges the amended complaint filed on behalf of the families of some 1,400 victims who died in the terrorist attacks 16 years ago.

The court filing provides new details that paint “a pattern of both financial and operational support” for the 9/11 conspiracy from official Saudi sources, lawyers for the plaintiffs say. In fact, the Saudi government may have been involved in underwriting the attacks from the earliest stages — including testing cockpit security.

A humanoid named Sophia has made history by becoming the first robot in the world to be granted citizenship.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday offered citizenship to the robot, designed by entrepreneur David Hanson.

Journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin made the announcement at the tail end of an interview with Sophia at The Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“We just learned, Sophia, I hope you’re listening to me, that you have been now awarded what is going to be the first Saudi citizenship for a Robot,” he said to applause from the audience.


Sophia responded, without missing a beat: “I want to thank very much the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

“I am very proud and honored for this unique distinction. This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship,” the robot said.

The particulars of the citizenship were not discussed, and it’s not clear if Sophia will have the same rights as a human Saudi Arabian citizen.

Saudi Arabia will extract uranium domestically as a step towards “self-sufficiency” in producing atomic fuel, a senior government official said Monday.





Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani, head of the Saudi government agency tasked with the nuclear plans, told Reuters that the move makes sense from an economic point of view.

In a speech at an international nuclear power conference in Abu Dhabi, Yamani did not specify whether Saudi Arabia seeks to also enrich and reprocess uranium—steps that are much more sensitive because they can open up the possibility of military uses.




The world’s largest oil exporter said it wants to tap atomic power for peaceful purposes only in order to diversify its energy supply, Reuters reported.

For decades, Saudi Arabia’s religious establishment wielded tremendous power, with bearded enforcers policing public behavior, prominent sheikhs defining right and wrong, and religious associations using the kingdom’s oil wealth to promote their intolerant interpretation of Islam around the world.

Now, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is curbing their power as part of his drive to impose his control on the kingdom and press for a more open brand of Islam.

Before the arrests on Saturday of his fellow royals and former ministers on corruption allegations, Prince Mohammed had stripped the religious police of their arrest powers and expanded the space for women in public life, including promising them the right to drive.

Dozens of hard-line clerics have been detained, while others were designated to speak publicly about respect for other religions, a topic once anathema to the kingdom’s religious apparatus.

If the changes take hold, they could mean a historic reordering of the Saudi state by diminishing the role of hard-line clerics in shaping policy. That shift could reverberate abroad by moderating the exportation of the kingdom’s uncompromising version of Islam, Wahhabism, which has been accused of fueling intolerance and terrorism.

Until he was stripped of his top-secret security clearance in February, presidential adviser Jared Kushner was known around the White House as one of the most voracious readers of the President’s Daily Brief, a highly classified rundown of the latest intelligence intended only for the president and his closest advisers.

Kushner, who had been tasked with bringing about a deal between Israel and Palestine, was particularly engaged by information about the Middle East, according to a former White House official and a former U.S. intelligence professional.

In late October, Jared Kushner made an unannounced trip to Riyadh, catching some intelligence officials off guard. “The two princes are said to have stayed up until nearly 4 a.m. several nights, swapping stories and planning strategy,” the Washington Post’s David Ignatius reported at the time.

What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. Kushner, through his attorney’s spokesperson, denies having done so.