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US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have presented a $112 billion reconstruction plan to Gulf officials to build a “high-tech metropolis” atop the remains of Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The 32-page PowerPoint presentation labeled "sensitive" and titled "Project Sunrise" was developed over 45 days and reportedly presented to officials from Qatar, UAE, Egypt, and Turkiye. The plan envisions turning the Gaza Strip into a "high-tech metropolis" over the next two decades with four phases of reconstruction beginning in southern Gaza. It also calls for turning Rafah into Gaza's new "administrative center," housing over 500,000...

Archaeologists have uncovered definitive proof of early Christian life in the Arabian Gulf, thanks to the discovery of a plaster Christian cross dating back around 1,400 years. The find was made on Sir Bani Yas Island, about 110 miles southwest of Abu Dhabi, and confirms that a cluster of small courtyard houses found decades ago were part of a monastic Christian community. The cross was discovered by teams from Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism during excavations that restarted in January 2025. The artifact was found among courtyard houses north of the main monastery complex, where senior monks are...

British Prince Andrew and UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed. Andrew may go into a gilded life in exile. As the former Duke of York is massacred daily by an unstoppable flux of scandals, he is facing the prospect of being evicted from the 30-room Royal Lodge that has been his residence for more than 20 years. Prince Andrew always maintained that he held a ‘cast iron’ lease of the mansion, until it became public that he only paid ‘one peppercorn a year’ in rent. The agreement stated that the Crown would have to pay Andrew around £558,000 ($742,000) if he gave...

Why Washington Must Accelerate the U.A.E. Chip PartnershipThe United States and China are locked in a technology cold war. Beijing’s latest move—restricting exports of rare earth minerals critical to advanced manufacturing of everything from semiconductors to defense systems—shows that China is willing to weaponize every advantage it has. But the trade war is only part of the story. China’s quest to become a hegemonic power runs through the Gulf, where it seeks to establish a military presence to secure energy and shipping routes vital to its economy. For years, Beijing has courted the region’s energy and capital-rich states through the...

"If we work together, we can bring an end to the death and destruction that we’ve seen for so many years."Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a U.S.-backed plan to end the war in Gaza and establish “a credible pathway” to a Palestinian state.The White House rolled out the plan shortly before President Donald Trump appeared with Netanyahu for a joint press conference at the White House. Trump announced that Israel had agreed to the 20-point framework, which the president said would deliver “peace in the Middle East,” during his opening remarks.“Today is a historic day for peace,...

Since Labour came to power, it has become clear that the battle against extremism has taken a back seat to political expediency. Labour has always had a counter-extremism problem, and after two decades of work I have done in this area which started post 7/7 under the Blair government, Labour continues to flounder in challenging Islamism in Britain. This Government, it seems, is being straight-jacketed by Islamist loudmouths who have hijacked the public discourse space on who represents Muslims in the UK. These political extremists who have hijacked Islam continue to smear and threaten those within Muslim communities who dare...

Trump convenes 8 Arab, Muslim leaders to present Gaza future planThe terror organization Hamas sent a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump proposing a two-month ceasefire in exchange for releasing half of the Israeli hostages it is still holding captive in Gaza, Fox News reported on Monday. Citing a senior Trump administration official and a source directly involved in the negotiations, the report stated that the letter is in Qatari hands and will be transmitted to Trump this week. Israel’s Channel 12 News reported that a Hamas leader might personally sign the letter before it is sent to Trump. The...

The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) announced that archaeologists unearthed a rare 1,600-year-old stucco plaque featuring a Christian cross on the island of Sir Bani Yas near Abu Dhabi. The discovery was made during the first major excavation campaign at the site in over three decades, after a Christian monastery was first identified on the island in 1992. Current archaeological work at the complex is focused on a group of courtyard houses where the monks resided. The 10.5-by-6.5-inch plaque was likely used by monks for spiritual contemplation. The object features what appears to be...

Latest DevelopmentsAid Trucks Looted: Data from the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) showed that between May 19 and August 5, more than 2,600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed from Israel into Gaza. However, only 300 of these trucks reached their intended destinations in Gaza during that period, with some 2,309 trucks being “intercepted” and looted along their delivery routes — undermining the recent claim of Tom Fletcher, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, that “the vast majority of the aid gets to civilians.” UNOPS’s data did not distinguish between the parties responsible for the interceptions, noting only that...

Some viral videos this month claim that Spain’s humanitarian aid dropped in Gaza contained pork or allegedly stale food. The controversy started after a clip, posted by a Palestinian journalist named Alam El-Din Sadiq, showed a young boy opening a bag of aid in Khan Yunis, alleging the supplies were mouldy and later sold in markets for over NIS 300 (about €75). Other reports claim that Spanish humanitarian aid in Gaza included ‘pork meatballs’ and pork, a food that the Islamic religion prohibits Muslims from eating. Spanish authorities’ response: “It’s halal-certified!” Over the last two months, Spain has dropped roughly...

The Department of Justice on Monday unveiled a record-shattering crackdown on the corrupt underbelly of America’s health care system. A jaw-dropping 324 defendants — including 96 medical professionals — have been charged in 50 federal districts and 12 states for orchestrating over $14.6 billion in intended fraud, largely targeting Medicare, Medicaid, and federal health programs meant to serve the elderly, disabled, and the poor. The takedown, spearheaded by the DOJ’s Health Care Fraud Unit in coordination with HHS-OIG, the FBI, the DEA, and over a dozen state attorney general offices, marks the largest health care fraud bust in U.S. history....

Largest Justice Department Health Care Fraud Takedown in History More than Doubles Prior Record of $6 Billion The Justice Department today announced the results of its 2025 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, which resulted in criminal charges against 324 defendants, including 96 doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and other licensed medical professionals, in 50 federal districts and 12 State Attorneys General’s Offices across the United States, for their alleged participation in various health care fraud schemes involving over $14.6 billion in intended loss. The Takedown involved federal and state law enforcement agencies across the country and represents an unprecedented effort to...

After the US strike on Iran earlier this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump agreed on a rapid end to the war in Gaza and expansion of the Abraham Accords, Israel Hayom reports, citing “a source familiar with the conversation.” According to the outlet, Trump and Netanyahu agreed in a phone call that the war in Gaza would end within two weeks. Four Arab states, including the UAE and Egypt, would jointly govern the Gaza Strip in place of Hamas. The terror group’s leadership would be exiled, and all hostages would be released.

I normally don't post unconfirmed stuff like this but if true it could make things make a lot more sense...

The United Arab Emirates is spending $20 billion on OpenAI’s Stargate UAE. The project is billed as a sovereign AI capability, yet it relies entirely on American chips, software, and infrastructure. This is the sovereign AI paradox: The harder nations push for AI independence, the deeper their dependencies become.The UAE is not alone. From Paris to New Delhi, governments are pouring billions into so-called “sovereign” frontier models. France backs Mistral. India promotes BharatGPT. Each promises strategic autonomy yet is dependent on a globalized stack.The term “AI factories,” adopted by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, rebrands data centers as strategic infrastructure akin...

SummaryEight OPEC+ members met online OPEC+ cites steady economic outlook, healthy fundamentals Started unwinding output cuts in April For more detail on OPEC+ unwinding its cuts, see Explainer LONDON/MOSCOW, May 31 (Reuters) - The world’s largest group of oil producers, OPEC+, stuck to its guns on Saturday with another big increase of 411,000 barrels per day for July as it looks to wrestle back market share and punish over-producers. Having spent years curbing production - more than 5 million barrels a day (bpd) or 5% of world demand - eight OPEC+ countries made an modest output increase in April before...

The president didn’t travel all that way for photo ops. But here’s the greatness that most analysts have missed. President Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East was groundbreaking on many levels: economic, diplomatic, and strategic. In each of the countries he visited, he was greeted warmly by all the highest-ranking officials. He lined up billions in economic agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. However, Trump didn’t travel all that way for photo ops. Although the economic agreements are important, his boldest move was meeting with the new Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa and the agreement to...

A month before President Trump’s inauguration, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to the United Arab Emirates with two goals: discussing regional issues with the Abu Dhabi royal known as the “spy sheikh,” and attending a cryptocurrency conference. Less than five months later, Witkoff’s son, co-founder of the crypto venture World Liberty Financial, took the stage at a conference in Dubai to announce the company had struck a deal for the sheikh’s company to buy $2 billion of their new cryptocurrency. The expected tens of millions of dollars in annual profits would be split between the Witkoffs and their co-founders—and...

Abstract: Among growing indications of human occupation in the coastal regions of southern and southeastern Arabia extending into the Neolithic and beyond, this study introduces new archaeological evidence, namely bifacial arrowheads and trihedral points, suggesting human presence at the Saruq Al-Hadid site in the fringe of Rub' Al Khali during the mid-Holocene period. Human activities in the site are dated to the 'Dark Millennium' and Bronze Age. We suggest that Contexts 10 and 8 are an extension of the activities of the Horizon IV, located 20 m to the West. This is evidenced by the similarity in the simple reduction...

Ancient UAE Was Active Trading Hub© XPRESS/DANESH MOHIUDDIN Archaeologists now claim that the Arabian Peninsula was home to developed settlements during the same period. Published: August 16, 2007, 12:13 By Derek Baldwin, Staff Reporter You might want to set aside those early school lessons that taught you the dawn of Western civilisation was confined to Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). An expert panel of archaeologists from around the world now claim the Arabian Peninsula – long thought to be a barren wasteland from around 5,000BC – was home to developed settlements during the same period. In the August 3 edition of Science...