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The Biden administration told a U.S. court that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s status as a sitting head of government shields him from a civil lawsuit brought by the fiancée of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mr. Khashoggi, a former royal insider who criticized Prince Mohammed’s policies in Washington Post columns, was killed in 2018 and his body dismembered by Saudi agents during a visit to the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate where he was seeking papers needed to marry Hatice Cengiz, a Turkish citizen. In a filing Thursday, the State Department said “common law principles of immunity” informed its determination...

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?

US President Joe Biden sought to use his first Middle East tour in office to reassert Washington's influence but emerged without a single diplomatic breakthrough, an outcome analysts said was no surprise. On issues ranging from energy prices to human rights and Israel's role in the region, Biden could point only to small -- if any -- gains after four whirlwind days of meetings and speeches. Driving the point home, as Air Force One flew back to Washington Saturday evening, Biden's Saudi hosts downplayed one of the trip's few concrete announcements: their lifting of airspace restrictions on flights to and...

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia—For Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his high-profile meeting with President Biden was an immediate victory, signaling that his isolation on the world stage is over. But the American president will have to wait weeks, perhaps months, before the world knows if his sojourn to the Middle East paid off for the U.S. On Saturday, Mr. Biden left Saudi Arabia, the second and final stop on a four-day Middle East tour that also took him to Israel. His aim was to reaffirm U.S. ties with an oil-rich region, following a rift with Saudi leaders after Mr. Biden...

JEDDAH — Leaders who participated in the Jeddah Security and Development Summit released the final statement of Summit, stressing their keenness to confront challenges in the region and preserve security in the Middle East. The summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia, kicked off on Saturday with the participation of all GCC countries and Egypt, Jordan and Iraq – also known as GCC+3. US President Joe Biden and other US officials who arrived in the Kingdom on Friday also took part in the regional summit. In the communique, the leaders renewed their call on Iran to fully cooperate with the International Atomic...

Tehran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has yet to decide whether to build it, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told Al Jazeera's Arabic service on Sunday. Tehran will also directly respond against Israel should its security be targeted, the report says citing the advisor. "In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium ... Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one," Kamal Kharrazi said.

Excerpt: "Biden yesterday reaffirmed his commitment to returning to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran– a deal which saw the Obama government send $100 billion to Iran, including a C-130 Hercules carrying $400 million in cash on January 16, 2016, as CNN reported. The Islamist regime then used that money to wage war in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza and around the world, massively destablizing the world. Now, Biden’s offer to the Ayatollahs threatens to dwarf even that gargantuan act of treason. “Under the deal, Iran gets a financial package worth up to $275 billion in the first year and...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be meeting with Iran's leader, Sayad Ali Khamenei, during his visit to Teheran which will begin on the 19th of July.

President Biden accused Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister of lying when he contradicted the president’s claim that had raised the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and bristled when asked about the fist bump with the royal. Returning early Sunday morning to the White House after his four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, Biden was asked whether A​del al-Jubier was telling the truth when he said he didn’t hear the president bring up Khashoggi with the prince, commonly referred to as MBS. “No,” Biden responded bluntly, according to a White House pool report. The president,...

We all knew this would be a train wreck. White House Steward Joe Biden has left Saudi Arabia humiliated. In 2020, Biden declared that the kingdom was a "pariah" after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. I couldn't care less. The man walked into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect certain documents regarding his pending marriage. He probably knew the risks. The nasty part about this story isn't the sordid tales of torture and dismemberment that reportedly happened to Khashoggi. It's the reaction. Everyone acted as if Walter Cronkite was the person butchered. The outrage was more...

Lina al-Hathloul is an activist from Saudi Arabia whose sister, Loujain, was imprisoned and tortured from 2018 to 2021. She traveled to Washington this week to explain to policymakers just how devastating it is that President Joe Biden has traveled to the Middle East to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, known as MBS. “The thing is, Saudi Arabia is now a police state. So whatever reforms they brag about having, concretely, it really depends on the will of MBS,” Lina al-Hathloul told me. “It’s a dictatorship and a dark era for Saudi that we’ve never experienced...

CNN's Wolf Blitzer presses Saudi diplomat Adel al-Jubeir, who was in the room during President Joe Biden's meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Video at source.

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...

The Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey open for business today..... Car-rental company Hertz filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in Delaware today.... Economic advisers to the President see better economic news later this year...... For the first time since a major economic downturn in 2002, Argentina is in default on a loan tonight..... Iran's top military commander says his country has intelligence on US military movements in the Persian Gulf region and far beyond....... A successful test of a laser weapon by the United States........ The US is considering a nuclear weapons test for the first time since 1992.........

A restaruant where customers can sit down has been open for business in Kendrick, Idaho since May 1st in violation of the coronavirus martial law house arrest order of Republican Governor Brad Little. Now the Hardware Brewing Company being threatened with an alcohol license suspension by the Idaho State Police..... Anti-house arrest lockdown protests in several German cities today Munich, Frankfurt and Cologne..... An incident being called "fatal" involving an Iranian logistics ship near the port of Jask with unofficial reports calling it a "friendly fire" incident..... Al Qaeda affiliated jihadists in northwestern Syria launched a surprise attack on government...