WSJ:
The canceled contracts are part of the $38 billion arid-mountain resort known as Trojena, which its managers once said would be the first outdoor ski resort in the Persian Gulf
...
Italy-based Webuild said Wednesday that Neom canceled its contract to build a $5 billion dam, which was meant to make a mountainside lake and was in the midst of construction. Malaysia-based Eversendai Corporation said Tuesday that Neom had ended its contract to supply the site with steel
A man and his dog fleeing bombs in Tehran. The human & animal victims of war
— dominic dyer (@domdyer70) March 28, 2026
Photo by Pooria Hatami. pic.twitter.com/OSPB8N88dt
WSJ:
Israel has arrested several people, including army reservists
...
The arrests followed reports in Israeli media that Shin Bet was investigating a series of Polymarket bets last year related to when Israel would launch an attack on Iran, including which day or month the attack would take place and when Israel would declare the operation over
...
The account in question raked in more than $150,000 in winnings before going dormant for six months. It resumed trading last month, betting on when Israel would strike Iran
BBC:
Saudi Arabia was awarded the hosting rights in 2022, with the event set to take place in the planned city of Neom
...
The 2034 men's football World Cup will be held in Saudi Arabia, with Neom - in the north west of the country - one of the planned venues
Four years ago, the kingdom won the rights to hold the event at Trojena, a planned ski resort in the mountains of NEOM. Back then, the idea of holding winter sports in a country known more for blisteringly hot deserts than snowy peaks seemed absurd
This ski resort at Neom, called Trojena, was also due to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games.
— Philip Oldfield (@SustainableTall) January 26, 2026
It will now be “downsized” and won’t host the games. pic.twitter.com/0xCaERdGo9
I happened to see this earlier today:
By some accounts, an ASBM or other missile arrived at a very shallow trajectory, with minimal warning, without a chance for interception, and splashing down around 200 meters from the Eisenhower. Details gathered from interviews with Yemen-focused U.S. and U.K. intelligence officers for this study. Names of interviewees, and dates and places of interviews withheld at interviewees’ request. The Houthis propagandized the carrier’s departure. See “America’s withdrawal from the Red Sea confirms the fall of the myth of Washington’s great power”
U.S. B-2 bombers and other aircraft struck five underground Houthi weapons storage locations in parts of Yemen that the Iranian-backed rebel group controls
And from earlier this month:
China rejected pleas from the United States to take joint international action against Houthi attacks on international shipping, a senior American diplomat said, and encouraged the rebel group to attack the ships of other countries rather than its own.
Another Red Sea Diving Hotel op. The Hungary-based company was an Israeli front and even transacted with real customers apart from Hezbollah. pic.twitter.com/EGlXDLpWdE
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) September 19, 2024
CNN:
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said earlier in a statement that its Military Police Criminal Investigation Division (MPCID) was formally looking into the “suspected substantial abuse of a detainee” at the shadowy base, where prisoners from Gaza have allegedly been held under extreme conditions.
...
“The break-in at the Sde Teiman Base is extremely serious and against the law,” ... the IDF’s Chief of the General Staff, said in a statement Monday, adding that the military was “working to restore order at the base.”
The NY Times is sticking with "dozens" right now. But The Guardian says:
At least 550 pilgrims have died during the hajj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year.
...
Each year tens of thousands of pilgrims attempt to perform the hajj without securing official hajj visas in order to save money, a more dangerous undertaking because these off-the-books pilgrims cannot access air-conditioned facilities provided by Saudi authorities along the hajj route.
The video also shows security personnel taking no action against the USV.One is seen looking at it through binoculars while two guards hold their Hecker and Koch G3 rifles pointing inexplicably straight up instead of at the USV. The three watch as it steadily approaches for about 30 seconds.
This @CNN news blog mentions @Nrg8000's work geolocating the site of yesterday's fatal helicopter crash in Iran.
— ASPI Cyber, Tech & Security (@ASPI_CTS) May 21, 2024
"It was first geolocated by Nathan Ruser, an analyst on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's CTS team".
👀👉 https://t.co/uhxPFrM4i0 https://t.co/HiBVA9moQj
A quick BTS post on tips for geolocating this. In climate and biomes like this the thicker tree-growth is always (in the N hemisphere) on the northern slope of the hills, which made it immediately clear the camera was facing W, and since it was a helicopter crash into the side of…
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) May 20, 2024
The initially reported search area was apparently around a 10km2 triangle between Uzi, Sungun and a forest shrine, with the wreckage being found ~12 hours later in the very middle of that area. To take that long to find it suggests that Iran's SAR capabilities are sorely lacking,… pic.twitter.com/Szcq5q4seF
— Nathan Ruser (@Nrg8000) May 20, 2024
Even getting things like cars from Halliburton was difficult: they had a rule at the time that you had to drive around white unarmoured Suburbans with Texas plates that had to be washed every week. And that was just insane because that was the surest way to get killed. So we went out to the open car market.
...
We bought a car and decorated with local style. We put on stickers that said, “I love Iraq,” put on the air freshener with the plastic half pulled off, and started working on figuring out who the scientists were and who we were supposed to work with.
...
I was flying back to the embassy in Kuwait, filling up a backpack with $20, $30, $50 thousand in cash, signing for it personally, and then flying to Iraq and running this $2 million program, entirely in cash.
...
I found out that a group of female librarians actually put their lives at stake to defend this library and prevent the looters from going in and destroying and carting off the books.
Some clever bureaucratic jujitsu described, too.
How Jordan Henderson's £350,000-a-week Saudi dream turned into a nightmare: His family struggled to settle despite living in Bahrain, playing in front of as few as 696 fans... and abandoning his promise to 'grow the game' after just six months
Many within the industry have little sympathy, and believe – should Henderson go – he will have ‘ruined it’ for other English players. There was a nervousness among Pro League officials over paying big money for players from England, a view that the English are notoriously poor travellers.
CNN:
Hundreds of thousands of Indians provide a large proportion of Qatar’s more than 2 million strong foreign workforce – which accounts for 95% of labor in the gas-rich Gulf state
The CNN write-up doesn't say who they were allegedly spying for. Reuters says it was Israel:
The ruling comes as Doha is trying to negotiate with the Palestinian militant group Hamas for the release of over 200 hostages seized during its Oct. 7 rampage in Israel, which is pummelling Gaza with aerial strikes in response.
The case involving the eight Indians, who were working on a submarine project with a private company for the Qatari authorities, could also become a diplomatic headache for New Delhi, which depends heavily on Qatar for its natural gas needs.
From May, "Has Palestine's Third Intifada Already Begun?"
*From March: "Israel Is Courting Disaster"
@mohamedomer846 #عاصفه_رعديه 😨😨#مكه_الان ♬ الصوت الأصلي - بـدر الـمـشـاري 💫
[The] spokesman for the National Center for Meteorology, posted ... that the storm brought gale-force winds exceeding 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour
Why did he fill two checked bags with Fruit Roll-Ups? “It has something to do with ice cream,” the man’s voice says.
The man was almost certainly referring to a viral TikTok trend, ongoing since at least March, in which users of the video social network wrap the sweet, sticky roll-up around a small scoop of ice cream, which then freezes over and becomes hard and crunchy.
*Previously: Greatest living pool cue maker sentenced after pleading guilty to helping smuggle elephant ivory
CNN really hides that development way down in its summary of today's events.
From his Wikipedia page:
When he came of age for conscription into the Israel Defense Forces at 18, he was exempted from service by the IDF due to his extreme-right political background
...
In 1995, a few weeks before the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Ben-Gvir came to public attention for the first time when he appeared on television brandishing a Cadillac hood ornament that had been stolen from Rabin's car and declared: "We got to his car, and we'll get to him too."
...
In 2007, ... he was convicted for incitement to racism
From police minister to police violence victim in a few months.
— Arieh Kovler (@ariehkovler) March 23, 2023
Meanwhile, the *current* police minister is a former criminal with convictions for supporting terror and racism.
So it goes. https://t.co/cGAj7yMJN0
In a first step of the overhaul, Netanyahu’s parliamentary coalition approved legislation that would protect the Israeli leader from being deemed unfit to rule because of his trial and claims of a conflict of interest. Critics say the law is tailor-made for Netanyahu and encourages corruption.The law to protect Netanyahu passed in a 61-47 vote in the 120-seat Knesset, or parliament, after a debate that ran through the night. It stipulates that a prime minister can only be deemed unfit to rule for health or mental reasons and that only he or his government can make that decision....secular opponents to the changes fear they will open the door to religious coercion. They also object to exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox men from military duty, which is mandatory for most Jews.
Israel's current public security minister:
a settler in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has faced charges of hate speech against Arabs and was known to have a portrait in his living room of Israeli-American terrorist Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounded 125 others in Hebron, in the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre. He removed the portrait after he entered politics. He was also previously convicted of supporting a terrorist group known as Kach, which espoused Kahanism, an extremist religious Zionist ideology
...
When he came of age for conscription into the Israel Defense Forces at 18, he was exempted from service by the IDF due to his extreme-right political background
...
In 1995, a few weeks before the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, [he] came to public attention for the first time when he appeared on television brandishing a Cadillac hood ornament that had been stolen from Rabin's car and declared: "We got to his car, and we'll get to him too."