Saudi Arabia releases US retiree jailed over critical tweets

Saad Almadi’s family thanks Trump and state department as announcement comes after meeting with crown prince

Saudi Arabia has agreed to allow US citizen Saad Almadi to return home to Florida, five months ahead of the scheduled lifting of travel restrictions and a day after Saudi crown prince and prime minister Mohammed bin Salman met Donald Trump at the White House.

Almadi, 75, was sentenced to 19 years of incarceration in the kingdom in 2021 after he wrote 14 tweets critical of the Riyadh government. Two years later, the charges were reduced to so-called “cyber crimes” and he was sentenced to a 30-year ban on leaving Saudi Arabia.

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Trump shrugs off Khashoggi murder during Saudi prince’s White House visit

US president also claims Mohammed bin Salman ‘knew nothing’ about murder of journalist

Donald Trump has shrugged off the Saudi regime’s 2018 murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the journalist was “extremely controversial” and unpopular, dismissing the killing by observing “things happen”.

The US president made the remarks at the White House on Tuesday while welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time since Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment in Istanbul by Saudi state operatives.

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Saudi entourage for US visit may include official implicated in Twitter spy plot

Senior aide to Mohammed bin Salman allegedly led campaign to identify users who were posting critically about Saudi regime

A senior official in Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage, who is expected to travel with the crown prince on his first trip back to the US in seven years, has previously been accused by US prosecutors of playing a central role in a conspiracy to infiltrate Twitter and identify users who were posting critically about the Saudi regime.

Bader al-Asaker, who has headed Prince Mohammed’s private office since before he became crown prince, has never been formally charged by the US government for his role in the 2014-15 scheme, but was accused in court by a US government lawyer as having led the campaign to find a “mole” who would be able to extract sensitive information from the social media company, which is now known as X.

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Trump says US will sell F-35 stealth jets to Saudis as Prince Mohammed visits

Kingdom’s de facto ruler to arrive on first White House trip since killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018

Donald Trump is to welcome Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman to Washington on Tuesday, in a red-carpet visit expected to result in the sale of highly advanced US F-35 fighter jets to the Gulf monarchy.

The crown prince’s arrival in Washington will be his first White House visit since the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist and critic of the kingdom Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA later determined Khashoggi’s murder was approved by the crown prince, leading to global condemnation.

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First Thing: Jeffrey Epstein advised Steve Bannon during 2018 pro-Trump media campaign

Text messages released by US House show convicted sex offender coaching Maga influencer on political messaging. Plus, readers’ favourite photo booth moments 100 years after its invention

Good morning.

The convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein apparently served as a behind-the-scenes adviser to the former Trump official and Maga influencer Steve Bannon during an August 2018 media campaign to defend Trump and his agenda, and to promote Bannon’s media ventures.

What else has been released in the flood of recent Epstein emails? Among many, many other things, one email shows an exchange between him and an associate in which they discuss “girls” and travel. The justice department continues to downplay the possibility that other men were involved in Epstein’s abuse of teen girls.

What’s happening with rest of the Epstein files? Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote to release the files, after attempts to press two members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed.

What exactly is climate finance? Who pays it? And who gets it? Sixteen years ago, at the climate summit in Copenhagen, rich and polluting countries pledged to provide $100bn (£76bn) each year by 2020 so that poorer countries could cut their emissions and adapt to a hotter world. Last year, they set a new target of $300bn (£227bn) a year by 2035.

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UAE refuses to join Gaza stabilisation force without clear legal framework

Decision reflects wider regional doubts about terms of US-drafted plan to disarm Hamas

Plans for a UN-mandated international stabilisation force charged with disarming Hamas inside Gaza face growing opposition after the United Arab Emirates said it would not participate because it did not yet see a clear legal framework for the force.

Israel has already ruled out Turkey joining the force, and King Abdullah of Jordan has said Jordanian troops will not join. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a contributor, did not attend a planning meeting in Turkey last week and said it would not contribute unless a full ceasefire was in place.

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Louis CK defends decision to perform at Riyadh comedy festival as ‘a good opportunity’

Comedian admits to mixed feelings but says event is a ‘positive thing’ despite human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia

Louis CK has defended his decision to perform at the Riyadh comedy festival in Saudi Arabia after fellow comedians criticised the big names taking part as whitewashing a regime guilty of human rights abuses.

Speaking on Real Time With Bill Maher, CK, who is co-headlining the festival with the British comedian Jimmy Carr on Monday night local time, said other comedians had been “really surprised” by the response from audiences in Riyadh so far.

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Yemen needs two-state solution as no prospect of ousting Houthis, says southern leader

Aidarous al-Zubaidi says Houthis will not be dislodged by bombing and path to political settlement is blocked

Yemen needs its own two-state solution, the president of its Southern Transitional Council (STC) has said, warning that there is currently no prospect of dislodging the Iran-backed Houthis from power in the north.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Aidarous al-Zubaidi told the Guardian: “The best solution for Yemen and the best path to stability is the two-state solution, whether by referendum or agreement. The reality on the ground is that there are two states militarily and economically.”

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Saudi Arabia and France to lead UN push for recognising Palestinian statehood

Two countries open three-day conference at United Nations with goal as part of peaceful settlement to end war in Gaza

Saudi Arabia and France have opened a three-day conference at the United Nations with the goal of recognising Palestinian statehood as part of a peaceful settlement to end the war in Gaza.

The conference began on Monday, just days after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Paris would officially recognise the Palestinian government in September in an effort to reinvigorate peace talks around a two-state solution that have all but been written off since the deadly Hamas raid and ensuing Israeli military operation that began in 2023.

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Saudi Arabia accused of banning women’s rights activists from leaving the country

Former political prisoners face lengthy travel restrictions to stop them speaking out, says human rights organisation

Saudi Arabia is banning large numbers of its own citizens from leaving the country in a “cruel” attempt to silence criticism, say human rights activists.

High-profile women’s rights campaigners, including Loujain al-Hathloul, who pushed for the right for women to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Maryam al-Otaibi, one of three sisters targeted by the authorities for their activism, appear to have been given long travel bans. These restrictions frequently extend to family members.

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Macron not expected at UN summit on two-state solution for Palestine and Israel

Absence of French president makes it less likely there will be announcement of recognition of a Palestinian state

A UN summit on a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel – postponed by the Israel-Iran war – has been rescheduled for 28 and 29 July, but it is not expected that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will attend, making it less likely that it will trigger a series of high-profile announcements on recognition of a Palestinian state.

Macron, who last week told UK parliamentarians a two-state solution was “the only way to build peace and stability for all in the whole region”, has been trying to build momentum for recognition of a state of Palestine by a wide group of countries, but the lack of movement in ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel is making such decisions more complex.

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Global alarm at US strikes on Iran amid fears conflict could spiral out of control

Politicians express ‘grave concern’ and urge all parties to de-escalate and return to talks on Iran’s nuclear programme

Nations in the Middle East and beyond responded with alarm after US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites as the EU and the UN called for immediate diplomacy, with fears mounting that the war could trigger a wider escalation that could spiral out of control.

Gulf states, who historically have been regional rivals with nearby Iran and critical of its nuclear ambitions, expressed serious concern at the US strikes, amid concerns of retaliation against US military bases hosted in their countries.

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A Saudi journalist tweeted against the government – and was executed for ‘high treason’

The death of Turki al-Jasser was the first high-profile killing of a journalist since the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi

The tweet posted by Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser in 2014 was chillingly prescient: “The Arab writer can be easily killed by their government under the pretext of ‘national security’,” he wrote.

On Saturday, the Saudi interior ministry announced that al-Jasser had been executed in Riyadh, for crimes including “high treason by communicating with and conspiring against the security of the Kingdom with individuals outside it”.

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UK suspends trade talks with Israel as Lammy calls Gaza blockade ‘morally wrong’ and ‘unjustifiable’ – as it happened

Foreign secretary tells parliament that the Israeli government’s ‘egregious actions and rhetoric’ are isolating the country from its friends and partners. This live blog is closed

The Scottish secretary has said the new UK-EU trade deal provides “12 years of certainty and stability” for the fishing industry, amid criticism from the industry that the government has made too large a concession to the EU on fishing rights.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) has described the deal as a “horror show”, but Ian Murray said: “I don’t agree with that.”

It gives 12 years of certainty and stability for the industry, it doesn’t change any of the deal that was put in place in 2019, which is 25% more quotas for UK and Scottish trawlers and it gives wide access, of course to the new markets of the EU, in terms of pushing away all that red tape that was there before.

Not one more fish will be taken out of Scottish waters by an EU trawler as part of this deal and that provides that stability and certainty.

We should never trust Keir Starmer. You know, he’s screwing things up domestically, so he gets on the international bandwagon.

He’s selling us out, not just on Brexit, but on Chagos and … we’re hearing all sorts of things about Gibraltar. We’ll hold them to account on this. Where Labour negotiates, Britain always seem to lose.

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How Donald Trump’s ‘historic’ Gulf state deals benefit a handful of powerful men

The deals stand to enrich tech CEOs substantially by opening up new audiences for their products

On his tour of the Middle East this week, Donald Trump announced a slew of multibillion-dollar tech deals with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. With the sale of the US’s most advanced technology, he also sold the American model of the industry that made it: enormous amounts of power concentrated in the hands of a few men.

The announcements poured in last week: the US and the United Arab Emirates agreed on Abu Dhabi as the site of the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the US. The deal reportedly allows the UAE to import half a million Nvidia semiconductor chips, considered the most advanced in the world for the creation of artificial intelligence products. Saudi Arabia struck a similar deal for semiconductors, obtaining the promise of the sale of hundreds of thousands of Nvidia Blackwell chips to Humain, an AI startup owned by its sovereign wealth fund. Cisco said it had signed a deal with a UAE AI firm to develop the country’s AI sector. The agreements also directed some investment by Saudi firms into US technology and manufacturing. Amazon Web Services and Qualcomm likewise announced deals on cloud computing and cybersecurity.

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‘Very disturbing’: Trump receipt of overseas gifts unprecedented, experts warn

White House remakes foreign policy under pay-for-access code that critics say could violate US constitution

Former White House lawyers, diplomatic protocol officers and foreign affairs experts have told the Guardian that Donald Trump’s receipt of overseas gifts and targeted investments are “unprecedented”, as the White House remakes US foreign policy under a pay-for-access code that eclipses past administrations with characteristic Trumpian excess.

The openness to foreign largesse was on full display this week as the US president was feted in the Gulf states during his first major diplomatic trip abroad this term, inking deals he claimed were worth trillions of dollars and pumping local leaders for investments as he says he remakes US foreign policy to prioritise “America first” – putting aside concerns of human rights or international law for the bottom line of American businesses and taxpayers.

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Elon Musk shows he still has the White House’s ear on Trump’s Middle East trip

Although Musk has pivoted from Doge, the Saudi summit shows how he’s retaining proximity to the US president

Over the course of an eight-minute interview, Elon Musk touted his numerous businesses and vision of a “Star Trek future” while telling the crowd that his Tesla Optimus robots had performed a dance for Donald Trump and the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, to the tune of YMCA. He also announced that Starlink, his satellite internet company, had struck a deal for use in Saudi Arabia for maritime and aviation usage; looking to the near future, he expressed his desire to bring Tesla’s self-driving robotaxis to the country.

“We could not be more appreciative of having a lifetime partner and a friend like you, Elon, to the Kingdom,” Saudi Arabia’s minister of communications and IT, Abdullah Alswaha, told Musk.

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Trump meets Syria’s president after lifting US sanctions on country

Meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia seen as key towards recognition of new Syrian authority’s legitimacy

Donald Trump has met Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia and said that Washington is exploring normalising ties with Syria, a day after an announcement that all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted.

The US president met Sharaa, a former militant who fought against US forces in Iraq, before a conference of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), part of Trump’s four-day visit to the Middle East, where he is expected to court Gulf allies for investments in the US. Trump is due to land in Doha next, where he will meet the Qatari leader, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

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Pressure grows on Fifa as reports warn of serious risk to workers amid Saudi World Cup building boom

Two reports published today catalogue ‘gruesome yet avoidable accidents’ on construction sites despite the Gulf kingdom’s claims that work-related deaths have fallen

Thousands of migrant workers are likely to die in Saudi Arabia as a result of a building boom fuelled by the 2034 Men’s World Cup and other major construction projects, human rights groups have warned.

The Gulf kingdom has seen a surge in demand for cheap migrant labour, with a significant increase in foreign workers since 2021, as it starts preparations for hosting the World Cup and drives forward projects including the futurist megacity Neom.

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Iran proposes partnership with UAE and Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium

A consortium would help Tehran deal with US objections and tie in Gulf states to its enrichment programme

Iran has floated the idea of a consortium of Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to enrich uranium as a way of overcoming some US objections to Iran continuing to have its own enrichment programme.

The proposal would be one way of locking the Gulf states into supporting the Iranian position that it must be continued to be allowed to enrich.

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