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COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- A University of Idaho graduate student who is under investigation for suspected terrorism ties obtained unauthorized access to a campus lab containing radioactive material, court documents allege. Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a Saudi national working on his computer science doctoral degree, quietly moved his student office from the Computer Science Department into the school's engineering isotope lab, apparently without his adviser's knowledge, according to the documents. "The investigation of Sami Al-Hussayen has, from its outset, been focused on suspected material support to terrorism, particularly to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network," FBI agent Michael Gnecknow said in the...

The US is on high alert after receiving intelligence shared by Saudi Arabia that an attack by Iran on targets within its kingdom is imminent. According to the Wall Street Journal, Saudi and US officials said that Saudi Arabia, the US, as well as other neighboring countries have raised the level of alert for their military forces in the area.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared to walk back some of Washington’s condemnation of Saudi Arabia on the grounds that Riyadh was too friendly to Russia on Wednesday, crediting the Saudis for “positive developments” such as humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Relations between Saudi Arabia, a decades-long American ally, and the administration of leftist President Joe Biden have deteriorated rapidly since Biden visited the country in July, awkwardly greeting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist bump after vowing as a presidential candidate to turn his country into a “pariah.” The meeting went so poorly, the Wall Street Journal claimed...

President Joe Biden and his administration worked extensively to work out a secret deal with Saudi Arabia to ease oil and gas prices right before the midterm elections, even though the Saudis ultimately backtracked. Biden officials scrambled to convince the Saudis not to cut oil production before the midterm elections and thought they had succeeded once Biden agreed to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Biden officials pushed for the Saudis to accelerate production in July and August and additional increases from September to December, which would significantly impact oil production ahead of the midterms.

Newly-released drone footage shows excavators starting work on digging the foundations for the £440 billion megacity The Line in Saudi Arabia. The project was launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and will be part of the vast desert complex of Neom, which will also feature an artificial ski resort, an octagonal floating port city, flying elevators, a swimming lane for commuters and robots and AI to serve its future residents. the skyscraper will run from the Gulf of Aqaba, through a mountain range, and then extend along the coast into a desert 'aerotropolis,' the Wall Street Journal reported. The...

Scores of respected generals and admirals — including former national security advisers Marine Gen. James Jones and Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn — were among those cashing six and seven-figure checks for the work, according to a bombshell report from the Washington Post, which published the findings Tuesday after suing all branches of the military and the State Department for a trove of personnel documents in a prolonged court fight. Fifteen of the former top military officials have done consulting work for Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, since 2016, according to the report... Jones,...

A top Saudi official has blamed Joe Biden for higher gas prices after claiming the president should have extracted more oil from US wells. Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State, spoke to Fox News Friday and said it's Washington's fault for not increasing domestic production of the fuel. Al-Jubeir said, 'With due respect, the reason you have high prices in the United States is because you have a refining shortage that has been in existence for more than 20 years. You haven't built refineries in decades.'

Pennsylvania Senate hopeful John Fetterman recently attended a fundraiser in the Hamptons, a previously unreported appearance as he recovers from a stroke and ramps up to face Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz -- whom he often attacks as an elitist celebrity versus his blue-collar style. Photos posted to a public Instagram on Aug. 19 show Fetterman, Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor, at a gathering in Amagansett on Long Island. "Another fun one with our guy #johnfetterman #winning," Quinn Blackwell wrote in a caption. Blackwell declined to comment when reached by phone; he also made his account private. An account tagged in the photos,...

How perfect is this! The image reminds me of the beginning of the Charles Bukowski novel 'Post Office' - "It began as a mistake..." How I would've so loved to seen the confused expression on MBS' face as his Saudi political advisors explained the concept of the 'fist bump' greeting he was to perform with this biden fellow. How do you say WTF in Arabic?

Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, called President Biden's planned visit to Saudi Arabia "heartbreaking" and "disappointing." Driving the news: Biden, who once vowed to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah," is set to meet with the crown prince on Friday, a move that Cengiz described as "a huge backing down" in an AP interview. "It’s heartbreaking and disappointing. And Biden will lose his moral authority by putting oil and expediency over principles and values," Cengiz said. Cengiz also said that Biden should urge Saudi Arabia, which she said is a "terrible ally," to embrace a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told the press on Thursday that he pushes LGBT “rights” with his Saudi Arabian counterpart “invariably, in every conversation.” According to Politico, the statement came during the State Department’s first-ever “briefing for LGBTQI reporters,” with Blinken explaining that he has had “real engagement” with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud when talking about protections for the LGBT community in the Middle Eastern nation. Despite ardently pro-LGBT U.S. President Joe Biden saying he was going to treat Saudi Arabia like “the pariah they are,” Blinken said the administration is seeking...

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in an interview on Sunday that she thinks President Biden will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the president’s controversial upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia. When asked during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union” if Biden would meet the crown prince, Granholm said that she believed he would.

WASHINGTON (AP) — One month ahead of President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the District of Columbia is renaming the street in front of the Saudi embassy Jamal Khashoggi Way, trolling Riyadh for its role in the killing of the dissident Saudi activist and journalist in 2018. With members of the D.C. Council in attendance, a Jamal Khashoggi Way sign was unveiled directly in front of the embassy’s main entrance. “We intend to remind the people who are hiding behind these doors ... that we hold them responsible and we will hold them accountable for the murder of our...

President Biden will visit Saudi Arabia this month after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed Thursday to increase production, according to multiple reports. OPEC’s decision to expand production could help Biden tamp down domestic inflation, which at 8.3% was near a four-decade high in April, driven in part by soaring energy prices.

This marks the president's departure from his campaign promise of isolating Riyadh over the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi Joe Biden will reportedly visit Riyadh later this month and meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, abandoning a campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia "a pariah" for the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The Riyadh trip, first reported by the Washington Post and New York Times, suggests Biden has prioritized his need to bring oil prices down and thereby punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, over his stand on human rights. The visit will be added on to...

Over the past several months, the FBI released thousands of pages of material relating to its investigation of Saudi government links to the 9/11 attacks. This wave of declassifications was pursuant to Executive Order 14040, which President Biden issued on Sept. 3 under pressure from more than 1,800 survivors, family members and first responders who threatened to protest his presence at memorial events if he didn’t make good on a 2020 campaign promise to boost 9/11 transparency. The published documents are riddled with redactions, but a Stark Realities review of the trove has uncovered two instances in which the FBI...

A senior US official has accused Russia of driving food shortages in Yemen and around the world, suggesting Moscow is to blame for rapidly rising prices. The Kremlin rejected the charge, instead citing American sanctions as a leading cause of starvation. In an address at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield attempted to tie Russia’s attack on Ukraine to Yemen’s dire hunger crisis. “The World Food Program’s March report identified Yemen as one of the countries most affected by wheat price increases and lack of imports from Ukraine. This is...

CAIRO, April 14 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said on Thursday that as one of the major shareholders in Twitter he rejected a takeover bid by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. "I don't believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk ($54.20 per share) comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects," the prince said in a Twitter post. Musk took aim at Twitter Inc with a $43 billion cash takeover offer on Thursday, with the Tesla CEO saying the social media giant needs to be taken private to grow and become a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly three dozen House Democrats are pushing the administration to get tougher with Saudi Arabia, calling it a bad strategic partner after it has refused to help ease the world’s oil supply crunch during Russia’s Ukraine invasion. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat and senior member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Committee on Rules, led lawmakers in a letter asking Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a “recalibration” of the U.S.-Saudi relationship. The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for...

When seeing America’s we’ll-fight-to-the-last-Ukrainian approach to Russian aggression, many Arabs conclude that the U.S. can’t be counted as a security guarantor, and that nuclear weapons—which Russia has, Iraq didn’t and Ukraine gave up—make all the difference. To be sure, many of my Arab interlocutors have perfected the art of expressing grievance through historical cherry-picking: highlighting America’s inadequacies while sidestepping their own governments’ follies and self-inflicted wounds. The reality is more complicated, and no critique of American policy can justify indulgence of Russia’s criminal behavior or reluctance to lend assistance to the Ukrainian people. These Arabs have a point, however. If...