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The Supreme Court just issued a unanimous ruling, and the case behind it has everything: Twitter, Saudi dissidents, federal prosecutors, and a fake invoice. The decision came down June 11, 2026, in Abouammo v. United States, No. 25-5146. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for a 9-0 Court, reversing the Ninth Circuit and sending the case back. Legal reporter Katie Buehler summed up the ruling this way: The defendant is Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter employee accused of giving confidential information about Saudi dissidents to a high-level Saudi official. According to the Court, the Saudi official wired Abouammo $300,000. Later, after Abouammo...

The nation's top military official in the Middle East on Wednesday said Iran is one of the greatest threats to the U.S. today and has increased its "destabilizing role" in the region. "I believe that Iran is operating in what I call a gray zone," Commander of the U.S. Central Command, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, told the House Armed Services Committee in testimony Wednesday. "And it's an area between normal competition between states — and it's just short of open conflict." The general said Iran is exploiting this area in a variety of different ways, through things such as "lethal...

Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating Dick Cheney's former top national security aide, according to the Daily Beast. John Hannah, who worked on Trump's State Department transition team, has not been accused of any wrongdoing at this point, but he is affiliated with two men who are already being questioned by Mueller.

Mehek Cooke@MehekCookeTrump just turned the Abraham Accords into an accountability trap for the Gulf states and Iran walked right into it.Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey have never held Iran accountable is due to exposure. They share a neighborhood. They can't sanction, shame, or confront Iran while having zero security architecture binding them to the West or to each other.The Abraham Accords change that math entirely. Once Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey are signatories, they aren't just recognizing Israel they are locking themselves into a collective security posture.A breach of the Iran deal becomes their problem...

Big things are happening at the White House right now. The rumors started earlier today, Trump had either reached a deal with Iran or he has rejected a deal and would increase the bombings. Secretary Rubio dropped a hint on Saturday that the next step in the Iran war/conflict/whatever would be decided imminently. And it appears that Trump has gathered his top officials to Washington immediately, reportedly to discuss a draft of a deal proposed by Iran. JD Vance was rushed to the White House, interrupting his Ohio Memorial Day weekend plans. Secretary Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs...

The government of Saudi Arabia reassured visitors on Friday that it is prepared to screen for and otherwise address any public health threats during the upcoming Hajj season, responding to growing international concern about the spread of Ebola and hantavirus. The hajj is the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, the holiest city in the religion, which Muslims are mandated to make, if possible, once in their lifetimes. Saudi Arabia typically welcomes upwards of one million Muslims to the city for the hajj on an annual basis, most coming from all over the world, including countries hostile to Saudi Arabia such as...

https://archive.ph/CHQ6i President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed a new effort to reach a deal with Iran in a difficult call on Tuesday, three sources said, with one source saying Netanyahu's "hair was on fire" after the call. Why it matters: A revised peace memo was drafted by Qatar and Pakistan with input from the other regional mediators to try to bridge the gaps between the U.S. and Iran, the sources said. It comes with Trump vacillating over ordering a massive strike on Iran and holding out for a deal. Netanyahu is highly skeptical about the negotiations and...

These figures are based on annualized data from January to November 2025, compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and reported by Visual Capitalist and other sources. The United States is the world’s largest oil producer, followed by Russia and Saudi Arabia, with the top 10 countries supplying over 70% of global crude oil.United States 16.1%Russia 11.7%Saudi Arabia 11.3%Canada 5.9%Iraq 5.2%China 5.1%Iran 5.0%United Arab Emirates 4.5%Brazil 4.4%Kuwait 3.1%

Saudi fighter jets carried out airstrikes on Iran-linked Shi’ite militia targets inside Iraq during the Iran war, while retaliatory strikes were also launched from Kuwait into Iraqi territory, Reuters reported citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. Sources cited by Reuters included three Iraqi military and security officials, a Western official and two people briefed on the matter, including one in the United States. According to one Western official and another source familiar with the operations, Saudi air force fighter jets targeted Iran-backed militia positions near the kingdom’s northern border with Iraq. The Western official said some of the Saudi...

For the first time in the history of the modern Middle East, Saudi Arabia has crossed a major red line by launching direct military strikes against Iranian targets on Iranian soil. According to reports from Reuters and various Western intelligence sources, the Saudi Air Force conducted a series of secret aerial operations in late March 2026. These strikes were designed as a direct response to persistent Iranian attacks that had successfully bypassed the American military defense umbrella to hit targets inside the Saudi Kingdom. The operations, while unconfirmed by official government channels in Riyadh, represent a massive escalation in the...

OK. I have been doing my best to read the Trump tea leaves, figure out the Art of the Deal, and parse all the information out there so that I can figure out Donald Trump's strategy in the Iran War. I thought I had a good handle on it, and until the past few days, Trump's behavior accorded pretty well with my overall theory. Trump's strategy appeared to have been to pressure Iran into full and complete capitulation on the issues of nuclear weapons, ballistic missiles (which exist to make attacking Iran nearly impossible), and to get the Strait of...

President Trump suspended a plan to have the military escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz after Saudi Arabian officials warned Riyadh would not allow the US to use its airspace or air bases to support the initiative.“Project Freedom,” which the president announced Sunday evening, was paused Tuesday following pushback from the Gulf nation — as well as a phone conversation between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that did not resolve the issue, NBC News reported. The military operation had been intended to stop Iran from blocking the vital waterway, through which at least one-fifth of...

"Saudi Arabia is reported to have told him its airspace cannot be used for operations." Donald Trump has suffered a major operational setback as he has been reportedly told by Saudi Arabia that the US cannot use their airspace, says former US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, David Satterfield.

LIV Golf plans to tell players and staff ​by Thursday that ⁠Saudi Arabia's ​Public Investment Fund ⁠will stop funding the circuit ​after this season, the Wall Street Journal reported on ⁠Wednesday, citing ⁠people familiar ⁠with ⁠the matter.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is quitting the Opec and Opec+ groups of major oil producing nations next month after nearly 60 years of membership. The UAE said its decision would help it meet growing global energy demand in the long term after recent investments to boost its production capacity. It is seen as a blow to the cartel, with one analyst describing the exit as "the beginning of the end of Opec". The Gulf state's energy minister said being a country with no obligation under the groups would give it more flexibility. Opec was formed in 1960 by five...

The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday that it will exit OPEC on May 1. “This decision follows a comprehensive review of the UAE’s production policy and its current and future capacity and is based on our national interest and our commitment to contributing effectively to meeting the market’s pressing needs,” the UAE energy ministry said in a statement.

Barring regime change in Iran or a durable diplomatic resolution to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the West is now facing its most fundamental challenge to its energy security since the Arab-Israeli wars of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s. To escape the Hormuz trap—a crisis in oil, gas, and petrochemicals transit that will slowly degrade the global economy over the months and years to come—the West must revisit a familiar pattern. For nearly three decades during those wars, Arab states seeking to pressure Israel and its Western backers repeatedly weaponized Middle Eastern oil transit chokepoints by blocking canals...

Food for thought. Iran Is Not Winning. It Is Unraveling. The prevailing narrative on Iran has it almost perfectly reversed. We are told that Tehran is winning a war of wills in the Gulf and that Donald Trump is gambling recklessly with the world’s most sensitive chokepoint. In reality, Iran is not consolidating strength; it is managing decline. And Trump’s play on the Strait of Hormuz has quietly forced energy markets to reprice security—tilting the balance decisively toward the Americas, and away from Europe, Asia and China. The Islamic Republic no longer resembles a confident revolutionary project. With the old...

The U.S. military, which has been responding to Iran’s loitering drone attacks, has finally adopted Ukraine’s air defense technology. As low-cost drones continued to damage high-value military assets, it is interpreted that the U.S. has deployed Ukraine’s combat-proven response system at key Middle Eastern bases. On the 22nd, Reuters reported, citing multiple sources, that the U.S. has deployed Ukraine’s command and control platform at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, a key military asset in the Middle East, to defend against Iranian drones.… Ukrainian military officers are reported to have visited the base over recent weeks to train U.S. forces...

TEHRAN, May 26 (AFP) - Iran said Monday it was not holding any "important leaders" of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda in its jails, a day after a top diplomat revealed some members of the terror network were in Iranian custody. "Al-Qaeda members have been arrested in Iran, but the persons imprisoned are not important leaders of al-Qaeda," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told state radio. Asefi's comment came after Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Javad Zarif, said that Iran was holding an undisclosed number of the group's members. "We have had a number of al-Qaeda people in custody, and...