4 d. ago Trump names nominees to take over commands in the Middle East and Africa

President Donald Trump is nominating Vice Adm. Brad Cooper to take over as the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East

Politics

7 d. ago Hamas pledges to free Israeli hostages in prisoner exchange as it seeks amendments to US ceasefire proposal

In a dramatic development, the terror group submitted its counterproposal to a framework drawn up by Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East.

Events

1 week ago Hamas says US ceasefire plan accepted by Israel does not meet demands to end war in Gaza

Draft reportedly includes release of 28 hostages in first week, a 60-day ceasefire and aid for Gaza as soon as deal signed offIsrael has agreed to a US ceasefire proposal for Gaza, the White House has said, and Hamas said it was reviewing the plan although its terms did not meet the group’s demands.As a US-backed system for distributing food in the shattered territory expanded, Israeli media reported that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told the families of hostages held in Gaza that Israel had accepted a deal presented by US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Continue reading...

Events

1 week ago Gaza ceasefire talks: What we know as Trump team shares ‘good feeling’ about ending conflict

Israel and Hamas have given differing messages on the state of US-brokered negotiations

Events

2 w. ago Nineteen months of carnage: How Gaza was reduced to rubble and starvation as the world watched

Gaza is on the brink of famine after a three-month blockade on supplies, the UN warns. Chief international correspondent Bel Trew looks at how the Palestinians got to this point

Politics

2 w. ago Tucker Carlson says Trump’s deal to build hotel in the Middle East ‘seems like corruption’

Carlson made the remarks during an episode of his podcast this week

Politics

2 w. ago Trump the AI salesman makes deals in the Gulf – and rich men benefit

The president sold the US model of the industry that made it: enormous power concentrated in the hands of a few menHello, and welcome to TechScape. This week in tech: Donald Trump the AI salesman visits the Middle East; 23andMe gets bought, mostly for its data; and Elon Musk’s bot hallucinates an offensively incorrect historical record – twice.Legal aid hack: data from hundreds of thousands of people accessed, says MoJHow to protect your data after a cyber-attackScattered Spider hackers in UK are ‘facilitating’ cyber-attacks, says GoogleLargest US crypto exchange says cost of recent cyber-attack could reach $400m Continue reading...

Economics

2 w. ago Trump once condemned Qatar. How things have changed | Mohamad Bazzi

The country’s charm offensive and global mediator role – as well as a $400m plane – reveal a complicated relationshipOn his tour of the Middle East last week, Donald Trump was treated like royalty by the leaders of the wealthiest countries in the Arab world. The US president was feted in gilded ballrooms, his motorcade was flanked by dozens of men riding white Arabian horses and he was awarded an elaborate gold medal necklace. The leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates went out of their way to show Trump that they respect him more than his predecessor, Joe Biden.While Trump frequently praised Saudi and UAE leaders during his first term, he was highly critical of Qatar, a small emirate that is rich in natural gas but usually overshadowed by its two larger and more powerful neighbors. In June 2017, Trump said Qatar “has historically been a funder of terrorism at a very high level” and he supported a blockade against the country, led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Qa...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump makes the Gulf states feel powerful, but the real test is: can they stop Israel’s war? | Nesrine Malik

The US president’s deference to his Middle Eastern allies is hollow if they cannot affect what happens in their own back yardDonald Trump’s visit to the Middle East last week was an exercise in disorientation. Both in terms of rebalancing the relationship between the US and the region, and in scrambling perceptions. In Riyadh, he told the Saudi royals there would be no more “lectures on how to live”. He lifted sanctions on Syria so that the country may have a “fresh start”, and he fawned over the camels and lavish architecture (“as a construction guy,” he said at one Qatari palace, “this is perfect marble”). Never has Trump appeared more in his element, surrounded by the wealth of sovereigns, the marshalling power of absolute monarchies, and their calculated self-orientalisation and over-the-top flattery.The same man who enacted the Muslim ban in his first term was strolling around mosques and shrugging off the radical path to power of the Syrian president: “Handsome guy Tough past,...

Politics

3 w. ago Bill Maher slams Trump for planning to accept plane as gift from Qatari royals

‘You know, when you travel, you like to leave with a souvenir, right? So he got a $400 million plane,’ Maher says of Trump’s Middle East trip

Politics

3 w. ago How Trump stunned the world as he flipped America's Middle East policy on its head

President Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East provided the president with the kind of made-for-TV moments the president adores.

Politics

3 w. ago Trump's latest approval rating revealed as he secures trillion

Trump began his trip celebrating the news that the last living American hostage Edan Alexander was released by Hamas.

Politics

3 w. ago Israel launches major new offensive in Gaza after airstrikes kill more than 100

Hundreds killed in initial stages of Israel’s new operation in Gaza hours after Trump leaves Middle East with no talks of ceasefire

Events

3 w. ago Million Palestinians could be relocated to Libya under US plans, report claims

Gaza health officials say more than 250 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since Thursday, in a return to some of the deadliest bombing campaigns of the war

Politics

3 w. ago ANDREW NEIL: Donald Trump's 'bromance diplomacy' in the Middle East has achieved more in a few days than the conventional approach has in decades

Call it diplomacy by bromance. Donald Trump deployed it in the Middle East this week and made more progress in a few days than conventional diplomacy has made in decades.

Politics

3 w. ago Trump returns from Middle East dealmaking to domestic economic gloom

After his high-profile foreign tour, the president comes home to a ratings downgrade and warnings on inflation

Economics

3 w. ago Trump was in his element as a guest of the Gulf’s autocratic monarchs. So what did the trip actually achieve?

The four-day trip let Trump play dealmaker to the tune of trillions of dollars — but his eagerness to please the oil-rich Gulf states could help Beijing gain access to American AI tech, writes Andrew Feinberg

Politics

3 w. ago What Democrats can learn from Trump’s approach to the Middle East

The willingness to challenge received wisdom can yield results without political costs

Politics

3 w. ago What Donald Trump did this week should terrify Benjamin Netanyahu. This is why | Jonathan Freedland

The president’s Middle East tour made one thing clear – he will betray his one-time ally in a heartbeat. He is already doing it It’s come to something when the Palestinians’ best hope for relief rests on a man who dreams of emptying Gaza of its people and turning the place into a beach resort. And yet the clearest, and perhaps only, way out of the current agony lies with Donald Trump – and his growing impatience with an ever-more isolated Israel.If this were any of Trump’s predecessors, you would be hailing the past week as confirmation of a radical, even epochal shift in US foreign policy. But because it’s Trump, you can’t be sure it’s not a passing whim that will be undone in another equally drastic shift a matter of weeks, or even hours, from now.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Trump gripes again about AF1 as he departs Middle East: ‘I leave now and get on a 42 year

President complains about the age of presidential aircraft amid ongoing backlash over a $400 million plane he is being given by Qatar

Politics