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Ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell will join her beleaguered husband Christian Horner at the Bahrain Grand Prix today in a show of solidarity after leaked text messages rocked Formula One. Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner broke cover at the Grand Prix on Saturday morning with no sign of his wife Geri Halliwell after his wife found out the texts were leaked as she was flying in a private jet. Halliwell, 51, and her husband, 50, had breathed a collective sigh of relief on Wednesday when Red Bull cleared Horner of inappropriate behaviour allegations which were made by a female employee....

In recent weeks, it has become clear that the Biden-Harris regime is applying pressure to the Israeli government, in support of the Hamas-led terrorist cause in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government knows that it needs to continue to hammer Gaza without letup, as they continue to discover even more weapons caches, even more terrorist tunnels, even more evidence of military sites in civilian areas, virtually every day. If Israel pulls out before the job is done, then all these months will have been for naught. There are ten million Israeli citizens – Jewish, Muslim, Christian and more – all...

In what could be a landmark in the Middle East’s history, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Israeli media reported. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, currently on a tour of the region, was also reportedly present at the meeting in Neom, Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu was accompanied by the head of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Yossi Cohen, who is widely regarded to have played a key role in preparing the groundwork for the recent normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Arab Gulf states, news...

Two Royal navy warships have suffered damage after colliding with each other in Bahrain. Footage of the incident, which happened in Bahrain Harbour on Thursday, shows the HMS Chiddingfold smashing into HMS Bangor, in what appeared to be a bungled attempt to reverse alongside it. The collision is being investigated by British naval authorities (Video at the link)

Joel C. Rosenberg@JoelCRosenberg Finally — an Arab leader has publicly and unequivocally condemned Hamas, calling their October 7th slaughter of Israelis “barbaric and horror.” May the moral courage of Bahrain’s Crown Prince be echoed by other Arab leaders.

The White House readouts from both calls are largely identical and include the same talking points that Washington has been reiterating since the start of the war one month ago. In both calls Harris stressed the administration’s commitment to increasing humanitarian aid for Gaza, protecting civilian lives as Israel advances in its war against Hamas, rejecting calls from some in Israel to forcibly displace Palestinians and working toward a two-state solution.

Turkey on Saturday became the latest country to pull its ambassador from Israel since the beginning of Israel’s war with Gaza-based militant group Hamas, citing Israel’s refusal to heed calls for a humanitarian pause in the conflict. Turkey recalled ambassador Sakir Ozkan Torunlar, according to a statement from Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday morning, calling out Israel for an “unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Gaza” after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “no longer someone we can talk to,” though Erdogan acknowledged: “complete disconnection is not possible, especially in international diplomacy.”

At first glance, Thursday’s first-ever phone call between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi might suggest the two predominantly Muslim nations are coming together to support Hamas and its war on Israel. But a closer look shows the two leaders were talking past each other. The Saudi prince, known as MBS, wants peace with Israel and his country’s full integration into the world economy, an agenda that puts him fundamentally at odds with Tehran’s drive to destroy Israel and dominate the Middle East through a network of clients and proxies. According to the Saudi readout...

Pro-Hamas rally in Iraq, October 14In 2008, Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri bizarrely castigated Hamas, saying that their "blessed Qassam rockets" do not differentiate between Israeli soldiers who are legitimate targets, and children and Arabs who are not.Hamas was embarrassed at being given a morality lesson from Al Qaeda, and it went on to deny that they targeted civilians, saying all of their rockets were only aimed at military sites.After that incident, Hamas press releases on their rocket fire changed the names of the targets from "settlements" to "military bases" that has the same names - like "military base Sderot"...

This week, the world will celebrate the three-year anniversary of President Donald J. Trump’s Abraham Accords. On September 15, 2020, President Trump ushered in a new era of peace and collaboration in the Middle East between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on the White House South Lawn.While intelligence community leaders said President Trump’s bold decision to keep his campaign promise and move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel, would cause war in the Middle East, just the opposite happened.Not shockingly, many of these individuals said the same when the framework...

On Sept. 15, 2020, President Trump ushered in a new era of peace and collaboration in the Middle East without a single bullet fired.This month, the world will celebrate the three-year anniversary of President Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords. While the Obama administration and others said Trump’s bold decision to keep his campaign promise and move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel, would cause war in the Middle East, just the opposite happened. Many of these individuals said the same when the framework of the Abraham Accords was initially announced, but just as...

There has been lots of breathless speculation for months now, in the American, Arab, and Israeli media, about what the U.S., and Israel, must offer Saudi Arabia for that country to join the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel.More on the latest comments about a possible diplomatic breakthrough, during National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s visit to Riyadh to continue negotiations, can be found here: “Biden mulls Saudi deal forcing Netanyahu to abandon extremists – NYT,” by Tovah Lazaroff, Jerusalem Post, July 27, 2023:US President Joe Biden is mulling a mutual security pact with Riyadh that would include an Israeli-Saudi...

A growing number of countries are coming forward to join BRICS and accept the new currency for global trade. The South African ambassador Anil Sooklal hinted that the alliance could expand this year becoming BRICS+. The move could add pressure on the U.S. dollar as developing nations would end their reliance on the greenback. The global financial order could tilt from the West to the East creating a new multipolar economy. According to the latest report, the BRICS alliance has formally received applications from 25 countries to join the bloc. The 25 nations that expressed their interest to join are...

Both the Obama and Biden administrations have had two obsessions that have proven to be erroneous but continue to persist. One is the belief that the Palestinians are the key to Arab Israeli peace. Former President Barack Obama had spent eight years pursuing efforts to push Israel to make unilateral concessions to the Palestinians, including freezing settlement expansion for almost a full year. At the same time, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas climbed on a high tree and refused to come down and negotiate. President Joe Biden has been less preoccupied with the Palestinians since other priorities emerged that made...

The Biden Administration has demanded that the Israeli government drop judicial reform from its agenda in exchange for the normalization of the Jewish State's relations with Saudi Arabia, Channel 12 News reported this evening (Tuesday). According to the report, the Saudis are demanding the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, while the US was the party to raise the demand over the judicial reforms in exchange for mediating the normalization talks. On Sunday, it was reported that Bahrain had been mediating negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia on aspects of normalization, such as allowing direct flights between the...

Saudi Arabia has reportedly invited Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi for an official state visit after the two sides agreed to restore ties in a peace deal brokered by China. Per the BBC, the invitation came in a letter from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, but that has yet to be confirmed by Saudi officials. A senior Iranian official, Mohammad Jamshidi, tweeted about the invitation to visit the Saudi capital, Riyadh, saying Mr Raisi had welcomed it and "stressed Iran's readiness to expand co-operation". Separately, Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters that the two countries had agreed to hold a meeting...

Preparing for any potential war against Iran, the Biden administration has formally elevated Israel in military planning.... ...For the Pentagon, Israel is the most prized military and intelligence partner in the Middle East, with its vast combat experience and advanced technologies. With the end of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, and with the brokering of the Abraham Accords by the Trump administration, Washington sees an opportunity to incorporate Israel into a new regional alliance. ... ..."CENTCOM will now work to implement the U.S. Government commitment to a holistic approach to regional security and cooperation with our partners," the Tampa-based command...

Al Arabiya English Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to become the Prime Minister of Israel for the third time. He has until December 21 to form a government before taking office. In a wide-ranging interview with a group of print and television journalists at Al Arabiya, Mr. Netanyahu discussed Israel’s relations with Arab states, the US alliance structure in the Middle East, unrest in Iran, Israel’s new hard-right government, the future of the US-brokered maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr. Netanyahu reiterated the paramount importance of normalization with Saudi Arabia, which would be a “quantum leap” toward...

Artefacts dating back 4,000 years, unearthed at a burial site in Janabiya, are shedding more light on merchant movements during the Dilmun era. Dilmun seals found at the site are inscribed with an Indus Valley inscription. Indus Valley was an ancient civilisation that thrived in an area between Pakistan and India between 2,800BC and 1,800BC... This is not the first time that Indus Valley inscriptions have been found on Dilmun seals, but it is rare, said archaeology and heritage acting director Khalid Al Sindi.

Dilmun calendar theory backed By GEOFFREY BEW A SAUDI archaeologist who has been trying for nine years to prove his theory that the Dilmun civilisation celebrated New Year on June 21 - the first day of summer - has finally received some official recognition.Information Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Culture and National Heritage Shaikha Mai bint Khalifa Al Khalifa is said to have endorsed his judgement after visiting the 4,000-year-old Saar settlement to observe the phenomenon last month. Archaeologist Nabiel Al Shaikh says an ancient temple at the settlement, which features an oddly positioned triangular room, was used as an astronomical...