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The U.S. State Department read out a phone call between Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the second time in 48 hours.

Rubio talked with the Israeli premier from Rome on Saturday, according to Tammy Bruce, the U.S. State Department spokeswoman. The two spoke about “the situation in Gaza and their joint efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages,” Bruce stated.

Saturday’s readout was terser than the one on May 15, in which Bruce stated that the secretary “stressed the deep U.S. commitment to its historic relationship with Israel and the ironclad U.S. support for Israeli security.”

White House envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff delivered an updated proposal to Israel and Hamas a few days ago for a deal to release the remaining hostages and to implement a ceasefire in Gaza, and is putting pressure on both sides to accept it, according to a senior Israeli official and a separate source familiar with the details.

Although Israel and Hamas have negotiating teams in Doha, the talks on Witkoff's proposal are currently taking place through other channels, according to the sources. This channel was critical to the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander last week, according to the report. Senior Hamas officials were disappointed that the release of Alexander did not lead to a more positive US stance toward the terrorist organization, a source familiar with the matter said.

Witkoff is holding direct talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his close associate, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and with the Hamas leadership in Doha, through the indirect channel of talks run by Palestinian-American businessman Bishara Bahabah.

An apocalyptic ‘wall of dust’ is barreling across Chicago — so vast, it’s visible from space.

Satellite imagery shows the storm swallowing highways and buildings, plunging the city of 2.6 million people into darkness.

It has triggered visibility warnings, halted traffic, and left Chicago residents choking on dust.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a dust storm warning, only the second time in history it has done so.

Israeli fighter jets carried out a wave of airstrikes in Yemen on Friday afternoon, targeting two Houthi-controlled ports in the west of the country, in response to the Iran-backed group’s ongoing missile and drone attacks on Israel.

Israel had waited until the end of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the region before launching its reprisal strikes on the Houthis. Since the Israel Defense Force’s last strike on Yemen, on May 6, the Houthis launched at least seven missiles and two drones at Israel, the latest of them on Thursday night.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa to join the Abraham Accords normalizing relations with Israel, the White House said, as the two leaders met in Riyadh, in a first encounter between leaders of the countries in 25 years.

Trump also asked Sharaa to “deport Palestinian terrorists” and tell foreign fighters to leave the country, as well as to take control of camps for captured ISIS fighters, currently run by Kurdish militants opposed by Turkey, the White House said.

The meeting in Saudi Arabia came after Trump’s announcement that he would lift sanctions on Syria and move to restore ties with its new leader — a move that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was reported on Wednesday, had requested Trump not make, when the premier was in Washington last month.

Continuing his Middle East trip, US President Donald Trump said Thursday that October 7, 2023, was “one of the worst days in the history of the world, not only in this region.”

In comments at a meeting of business leaders in Doha, the US president said the Hamas-led assault on Israel, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, was “one of the worst, most atrocious attacks anyone has ever seen.”

US President Donald Trump's visit to Riyadh represents a pinnacle moment in his diplomatic journey across the Middle East, designed to bolster American influence throughout the region. The US administration has finalized an enormous weapons agreement with Saudi Arabia valued at $142 billion, triggering alarm among Israel's defense establishment. The agreement potentially threatens to undermine the "qualitative edge" of advanced weaponry that Israel maintains over other countries in the Middle East, including those not actively engaged in hostilities with Israel.

In parallel, Riyadh has pledged an unprecedented investment of roughly $600 billion in the American economy, possibly constituting one of the most significant economic exchanges ever conducted between the two countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Tuesday ahead of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, a day after announcing the lifting of all U.S. sanctions on Damascus.

The meeting marked the first direct encounter between American and Syrian leaders in a quarter century.

U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Wednesday, the first time a U.S. President met with a Syrian president in 25 years.

While Israel has signaled its opposition to granting legitimacy to Syria's new government, Trump pointedly called Sharaa to make peace with the Jewish State and to deport Palestinian terrorists from his country.

The closed-doors meeting came before a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh, and Trump and Sharaa were joined by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

US President Donald Trump told Gulf leaders on Wednesday that he urgently wants “to make a deal” with Iran to wind down its nuclear program, but that Tehran must end its support of proxy groups throughout the region as part of any potential agreement.

Iran “must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars, and permanently and verifiably cease pursuit of nuclear weapons,” Trump said in remarks at a meeting of leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council hosted by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh. “They cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

The US and Iran have engaged in four rounds of talks since early last month, focused on Iran’s nuclear program. Trump has repeatedly said he believes brokering a deal is possible, but that the window is closing.

At the start of last week, the Israeli Air Force struck targets in Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria (plus Gaza) within several hours, once again demonstrating its considerable abilities to strike multiple targets at great distances - a clear message to Iran.

President Donald Trump is embarking this week on a high-stakes tour of the Persian Gulf region, targeting business deals and strategic partnerships with three oil-rich nations: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

The trip marks Trump's first major foreign visit of his new term and comes as nuclear negotiations with Iran drag on and as war continues between Israel and the Palestinian terror organization, Hamas, in the Gaza Strip. While business is the official focus, the backdrop is anything but calm.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the mission as part of Trump’s broader vision that "extremism is defeated [through] commerce and cultural exchanges."

Karim Khan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, hoped that issuing arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant would make the West turn against Israel, a senior Western diplomat with firsthand knowledge of the ICC case has told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.

He recalled a conversation he had with Khan last year, where Khan allegedly said: “You just wait and see. If I apply for warrants against Netanyahu, this would give countries like Germany and Canada the excuse they need to turn against the Israeli government.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a call with coalition party chiefs on Monday, reportedly trying to assure them that Israel wasn’t going to agree to end the war before Hamas is defeated after he agreed to a request from the Trump administration to send a negotiating team to Doha in order to jumpstart long-stalled hostage negotiations with the terror group.

Netanyahu agreed to the US request after meeting with US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff and holding a brief phone call with US President Donald Trump after Hamas released American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander after he spent 584 days in captivity. Hamas released Alexander in what has been characterized as a gesture of goodwill to Trump after the group received assurances from a third-party mediator that the step would go a long way with Washington, opening the door to the administration potentially coaxing Israel to end the war in Gaza.

But Netanyahu told coalition partners that he won’t budge from his refusal to end the war before Hamas’s military and governing capabilities have been dismantled, according to multiple Hebrew media reports.

Pope Leo XIV’s brother Louis Prevost has said he “likes to stir the pot” and “throw things out there” on social media “a lot like I think President Trump does.”

Prevost has in recent years posted and reshared comments and memes online that might be expected of a MAGA and Donald Trump supporter.

But the new pontiff’s brother does plan to rein it in for the good of the Vatican.

“I don’t need to create heat for him, he’s going to have enough to handle as it is without the press going ‘the Pope’s brother says this’,” Prevost said, adding that he has already been “very quiet, biting my tongue at some of the stuff that is out there.”

Avigdor Liberman, leader of Israel’s opposition Yisrael Beiteinu Party, on Monday denounced the Trump administration’s plan to let aid supplies into the Gaza Strip as a “very, very negative development.”

“In my opinion, humanitarian aid—of any kind—should not have been allowed to enter since the start of the war, as long as our hostages are rotting in Hamas’s tunnels,” Liberman stated in response to a question from JNS at his party’s faction meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem.

“We just need to say it out loud to everyone and stand by it,” Liberman said. “You want humanitarian aid? First, return the hostages, then we’ll talk. And therefore, for me, this is a very, very negative development.”

A fourth round of talks between the US and Iran over Tehran's nuclear programme have taken place in Oman, with both sides agreeing to meet again.

US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff said the discussions in Muscat were encouraging, while Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi described them as "difficult but useful".

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test of a short-range ballistic missile and long-range artillery on Thursday and stressed the importance of combat readiness of the country's nuclear forces, state media reported on Friday.

The test, which also included an inspection of the operational reliability of its "nuclear trigger" system, was designed to ensure the rapid response posture to counter the sensitive regional military climate, KCNA news agency said.

The meeting between US President Donald Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upon his arrival in Saudi Arabia will also include Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, according to multiple Palestinian reports. 

The defining foreign policy feature of U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term was Israel’s integration into the larger Middle East, but as the president is set to visit Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi this week, some experts say that it’s apt that the Jewish state is lower down on the agenda.

“It’s mainly a Gulf visit, targeting certain goals that have to do with Arab Gulf countries in particular and not about the Middle East in general,” Dalia Ziada, senior research and diplomacy fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, told JNS.

With reports that the Trump administration is pursuing a civilian nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that is no longer contingent on Riyadh normalizing ties with Jerusalem, the push for Israeli-Saudi normalization may be faltering.

In what may be the most valuable gift ever extended to the United States from a foreign government, the Trump administration is preparing to accept a super luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet from the royal family of Qatar -- a gift that is to be available for use by President Donald Trump as the new Air Force One until shortly before he leaves office, at which time ownership of the plane will be transferred to the Trump presidential library foundation, sources familiar with the proposed arrangement told ABC News.

The gift is expected to be announced next week, when Trump visits Qatar on the first foreign trip of his second term, according to sources familiar with the plans.

Trump toured the plane, which is so opulently configured it is known as "a flying palace," while it was parked at the West Palm Beach International Airport in February.

President Donald Trump will depart on a high-stakes Middle East tour this week designed to secure Gulf investment, advance Gaza ceasefire efforts, and confront Iran’s nuclear ambitions as Tehran hardens its position and Washington draws clear redlines.

According to Iran International, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei endorsed chants of “Death to America” at a workers’ rally in Tehran on Saturday, declaring that “Americans fully support Israel” and portraying Israel’s campaign in Gaza as part of a broader Western war effort.

Reuters reported that in Doha, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned state media that if Washington’s aim is to deprive Iran of its “nuclear rights,” Tehran “will not back down from any of its rights,” underscoring that peaceful uranium enrichment remains non-negotiable.

There will not be nuclear weapons in Iran, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said in a Saturday interview with Channel 12.

"Military action depends on them [Iran], in whether or not they believe in taking President [Donald] Trump seriously. There won't be a deal that involves Iran with nuclear capacity," he added.

US Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff echoed similar sentiments in an interview with Breitbart on Friday. "The enrichment program can never exist in Iran, never. That's our red line," he said. He also said that its three enrichment facilities must be dismantled.