Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Saudi Arabia to Washington, DC, where the two leaders reached agreements involving arms sales, civil nuclear cooperation, artificial intelligence, and crucial minerals, and President Donald Trump designated Saudi Arabia as a significant non-NATO ally.
Trump made the announcement at a formal black-tie dinner at the White House on Tuesday evening that he would “take military cooperation even higher” by formally designating Saudi Arabia as a significant non-NATO ally.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Trump claimed that the designation was “something that is very important to them,” and that he was merely revealing it to you as a result of my desire to keep it a secret for tonight.
A US partner benefits from military and economic advantages without having to commit to any security obligations as a result of this designation.
Trump cited the signing of a “historical strategic defense agreement” between Saudi Arabia and the US.
According to a White House fact sheet, the defense agreement “fortifies deterrence across the Middle East” and “secures new burden-sharing funds from Saudi Arabia to pay for US defense costs.
Trump also disclosed that Saudi Arabia had consented to purchasing 300 American tanks while Trump had approved future deliveries of F-35 fighter jets.
“I’m pleased to announce that we are formally designating Saudi Arabia as a significant non-NATO ally, raising our military cooperation even higher.” – President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸🇸🇦 pic. twitter.com/PXXGGCBPGU
The Saudi-Saudi F-35 deal raises questions about Israel’s “qualitative military edge.”
The Saudi Arabian purchase of the stealth fighter jets would mark Riyadh’s first US sale of advanced fighter jets. 48 of the aircraft’s reportedly have been requested by the kingdom.
Washington views the move as a significant policy change that could alter the Middle East’s military balance, where US law mandates that Israel maintain a “qualitative military edge.”
Israel is the only Middle Eastern nation to have the F-35 so far.
Trump responded to an Al Jazeera interview with Kimberly Halkett about the impact of the jet fighter deal on Israel’s “qualitative military edge.” He said he was aware that Israel would favor Riyadh receiving warplanes of “reduced calibre.”
Trump addressed the crown prince, who was seated next to him in the White House, saying, “I don’t think that makes you too happy.”
They’ve been a fantastic ally, they claim. Israel has been a fantastic ally. Trump referred to the F-35 deal as “a level where they should get top of the line” as far as I’m concerned.
According to Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, a White House correspondent, Prince Mohammed’s nearly $1 trillion investment in the US included $ 42 billion in funding the purchase of the “most advanced of their kind in the world” F-35 fighter jets, according to Alan Fisher.
Fisher added that lobbyists and the Israeli government had tried to stop Saudi Arabia’s purchase of F-35s.
He continued, “Much more” than Saudi investment in the US was covered by the agreements.”
It involves supporting one another’s economies, industries, and defense. Although politics is not at the top of the list, both nations believe that these agreements could lead to a Middle Eastern political resumption, according to Fisher.
A “clear path” for a Palestinian state
The two nations also signed a joint declaration approving the conclusion of discussions over civil nuclear energy cooperation, which the White House claimed would lay the groundwork for a long-term nuclear energy partnership with Riyadh.
As long as Saudi Arabia and Israel maintain peace under the framework of the Abraham Accords, Israeli officials had suggested that they would not oppose the purchase of F-35s.
Prince Mohammed reiterated this statement during his meeting with Trump, saying that the Saudis would support the Abraham Accords only if there is a viable and guaranteed path to Palestinian statehood.
He stated, “We want to be a part of the Abraham Accords, but we also want to make sure that we secure a two-state solution’s clear path.”
After a heart-wrenching 4-2 victory over Denmark in a final-minute match, Scotland qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1998. The majority of the action took place in the final minutes.
As Scotland’s date with destiny loomed, nightly anticipations hung high in the air well before kickoff on Tuesday in Glasgow.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Since France 1998, World Cup qualification has remained out of reach for Scotland despite having qualified for the previous two European Championships.
In a winner-takes-all game in Group C, Scotland’s supporters swooped in a 10-man Danish side 4-2, with Scott McTominay scoring with a bicycle kick just three minutes into the contest.
When Denmark’s Rasmus Hojlund leveled the score, Scottish fans’ initial cheers were stifled.
The home team was then pushed again by Scotland’s Lawrence Shankland, but Patrick Dorgu equalized that goal in the 82nd minute.
On November 18, 2025, Scotland’s Scott McTominay celebrates scoring their first goal in Glasgow [Lee Smith/Reuters]
Denmark’s group victory would have come after a draw, and the Danes were well-positioned to do so before Kieran Tierney restored the Scottish side’s lead three minutes into extra time.
Eight minutes into stoppage time, Kenny McLean’s shot over Danish goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel from the halfway line seals Scotland’s qualification for the World Cup.
When Scotland scored their fourth goal, leaving fans in delirium and ensuring the game’s inclusion in the fabled folklore of Scottish football, one match commentator said, “You would not believe it.”
We’ve taken a journey, they say. Before the game, Scotland coach Steve Clarke said, “I spoke to them about how this is the opportunity we’ve waited for.”
“This was a chance to win one game.” It resembled a playoff final. Everything is in our hands. He said there is always one last step, and it’s the hardest one.
Rasmus Hojlund, a Danish international, shoots a shot at the Scottish goal during Hampden Park’s FIFA World Cup qualifying match [Russell Cheyne/Reuters]
Rasmus Kristensen was sent off in the 62nd minute, leaving Denmark two points clear of Scotland.
Denmark glared to be the better team for the majority of the game. The biggest twist, however, was saved at the end of the Scots’ already roller-coaster World Cup qualifying campaign, which included a 3-2 defeat in Greece on Saturday. The two goals in stoppage time caused the city of Glasgow to experience the loudest party in years.
Never say die, this squad just sums up. In one of the most bizarre games, we just keep going until the very end,” said Scotland captain Andy Robertson.
“We put the country through it, but I’m confident it will pay off. He declared, “We’re going to the World Cup.”
According to a months-long investigation by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a 300-metre (984ft) container ship called the Dali was the cause of the fatal collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last year.
The Dali went into a two-blackouts on March 26, 2024, which caused the container ship to crash into the bridge and kill six highway workers, according to the NTSB in a statement on Tuesday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
A livestream video of the accident that went viral last year caused a global media stir when the bridge collapse. Instead of filming the abrupt collapse of a significant section of the bridge, it was captured by a camera mounted to monitor traffic through the Port of Baltimore.
Finding the cause of the accident, according to NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, required months of diligent investigation from the agency’s investigators.
She said, “Our investigators consistently accomplish the impossible, and this investigation does not.” With miles of wiring and thousands of electrical connections, the Dali, which is almost 1, 000 feet, is as long as the Eiffel Tower. It was similar to looking for a loose rivet on the Eiffel Tower to find this single wire.
According to the NTSB, the Dali’s crew attempted and failed to steer the ship away from the bridge but was unable to do so due to electrical issues, according to the investigation.
The Maryland Transportation Authority halted traffic from crossing the nearly 4km (2.5 miles long) bridge after the ship’s pilots alerted local authorities to the issues.
Six people died in the accident, according to the NTSB, and seven workers were already working on the bridge at the time.
On Wednesday, November 19, 2018, this is how things are going.
Fighting
Authorities in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, reported that five people were hurt in an apartment building as a result of Russian drone strikes on two central districts, Slobidskyi and Osnovyansk, which set off a fire.
Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, reported that 22 residents had been evacuated from one section of the damaged apartment complex, while another drone struck a medical facility, injuring a doctor, and causing damage to the building and nearby cars.
Oleh Syniehubov, the governor of the Kharkiv region, claimed that in total, seven people were hurt in the attack thanks to 11 drones deployed.
On Wednesday morning, Russia’s civil aviation authority announced that it was temporarily halting flights at the southern Russian airport, citing only the safety of the situation.
On Tuesday, the city’s mayor reported that four Ukrainian drones were shot down by Russian air defenses on their way to Moscow. Russia’s aviation watchdog reported that Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo, Russia’s two biggest airports, temporarily stopped all air traffic before later reopening.
In the Donetsk region, which is under Russian control, Ukrainian drone attacks have seriously damaged the power grid. About 65 percent of local residents were without power, according to Denis Pushilin, the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic’s head, who was appointed by Moscow.
The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces claimed that Ukraine attacked two thermal power stations in Donetsk, which is located in the Russian-occupied territory. Major Robert Brovdi claimed that his forces had struck the Starobeshivska and Zuivska power plants.
Ukraine called it a “significant development” when it used ATACMS missiles from the United States to attack Russian military installations. The military continued to use long-range strike capabilities, including systems like ATACMS, according to a statement from the military.
According to his ministry’s outlet, Zvezda, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov regularly inspects troops fighting in eastern Ukraine. Belousov presented awards to military personnel in a video posted by Zvezda.
military assistance
To help Ukraine maintain its current Patriot missile air defense systems, the Trump administration approved a $ 105 million deal. Upgrades to M901 and M903 launchers, which can simultaneously fire more missiles, are included in the sale.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Tuesday that Spain will provide Ukraine with a new $ 710 million military aid package.
Along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sanchez said, “Your fight is ours,” adding that Vladimir Putin’s “neoimperialism” aims to “weaken the European project and everything it stands for.”
Regional security
Members of parliament expressed concern that the United Kingdom lacks a strategy for defending itself from military assault, and that at least 13 locations have been identified as new manufacturing facilities, according to a report.
Authorities have located two Ukrainian nationals, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who had a history of colliding with Russia and caused an explosion on a Ukrainian railway line.
According to Tusk, “the most crucial information is that we have located the perpetrators of the sabotage,” according to Tusk. We are certain that the railroad infrastructure violation and the rail explosion attempt were made with the intention to end railroad traffic.
After Warsaw placed the explosion on a railroad en route to Ukraine on the hands of two Ukrainian citizens who it claimed were being recruited by Russian intelligence, Poland was accused of succumbing to Russian xandria.
Soldiers from the NATO alliance gathered in Nowa Deba, Poland, to practice counterdrone skills on Tuesday. They included members from the US, the UK, and Romania.
According to a draft document that the Reuters news agency saw, the European Commission will make a new proposal to accelerate the development and purchase of cutting-edge defense technologies.
During a presentation in Nowa Deba, Poland, a US soldier [Kacper Pempel/Reuters] poses with an AS3 interceptor, a component of the US-made, AI-powered counterdrone system MEROPS.
Ceasefire
Zelenskyy promised to “reactivate” the diplomatic dialogue to put an end to the Russian-Russian conflict. Later, Selenskyy announced that he would travel to Turkiye on Wednesday to try to resume discussions with Russia about ending the Ukrainian conflict.
Since their July meeting in Istanbul, there haven’t been any face-to-face discussions between Kyiv and Moscow.
Another Ukrainian official involved in the meeting’s preparations, according to the AFP news agency, Steve Witkoff, a US special envoy, is scheduled to attend the discussions with Zelenskyy in Turkiye.
At the UN climate conference in Brazil, Ukrainian deputy minister for economy, environment, and agriculture Pavlo Kartashov announced that the country plans to receive $ 43 billion in climate compensation from Russia to support a planet-friendly rebuild.
The climate shockwaves of this aggression will be felt far beyond our borders and into the future, according to Kartashov, who lives in Ukraine directly.
diplomacy and politics
A major opposition party physically prevented lawmakers from removing two ministers from parliament on Tuesday because of a corruption investigation and demanded that the entire cabinet be removed.
Zelenskyy traveled to Spain for one day on Tuesday, and he got to see Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, a painting that depicts the horrors of war, and specifically the German and Italian forces’ bombardment of civilian targets.
Economy
Rostec, a Russian state conglomerate, reported that as a result of the Ukraine war, domestic orders had fallen by half since 2022. Russia’s defense exports were second only to the US in the world up until 2022, but the volumes dropped because we had to give our army the majority of our production, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov told reporters.
As Moscow looks for new revenue sources to boost its economy during its nearly four-year conflict with Ukraine, Russian lawmakers on Tuesday approved new tax increases. The State Duma, the lower house of parliament, gave the crucial second reading to a bill increasing the value-added tax from 20% to 22%.
Sanctions
According to sources with knowledge of the situation, US oil company Exxon Mobil and rival Chevron Corp are considering options to purchase shares of sanctioned Russian oil company Lukoil’s international assets.
According to the sources, Exxon is considering options for Lukoil assets in Kazakhstan, where both the US and the Russian company own stakes in the Karachaganak and Tengiz fields. Another partner in these assets, Chevron, is also researching purchase options.
As a special court sentenced former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her close aide, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, to death for crimes against humanity in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, and Shahina Begum wept in agony.
Sajjat Hosen Sojal, Begum’s 20-year-old son, was shot and burned by the police on August 5, 2024, just before a student-led uprising forced Hasina to step down and flee the nation she had ruled with an iron fist for 15 years.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
Six student protesters were killed that day in Ashulia, a readymade clothing store on the outskirts of Dhaka, according to the prosecution: five were shot and their bodies burned, and another was allegedly burned alive inside the police station.
The killings, allegedly ordered by Hasina to hold onto onto the hold of power, came as part of a brutal crackdown by security forces against the ‘July Uprising’, in which more than 1,400 protesters were killed, the UN claims.
The two were sentenced to death on Monday after a months-long absentee trial because Hasina and Khan had fled to neighboring India, and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun, who had turned himself in as a state witness, received a five-year jail term.
As the historic verdict sparked a rise in emotions in the nation of 170 million people, Begum told Al Jazeera on Monday night, saying, “I cannot be calm until she is brought back and hanged in this country.”
“In that police station, my son screamed for assistance. He was not saved by anyone. I’ll be at ease until the burners can never again harm another mother’s child.
[Photo by Shahina Begum] Begum and her son Sojal at the City University campus where he studied.
Many people are debating whether Hasina will face justice as hundreds of families who lost loved ones during the uprising last year come to terms with Monday’s landmark sentencing.
Questions remain as to whether India, a close ally of Hasina during her 15 years of rule, would extradite them and Khan, or whether it would help them avoid justice.
Begum, a resident of Shyampur village in northern Gaibandha district, remarked, “They took five minutes to burn my son alive, but it took almost a year and a half to deliver this verdict.”
Can she really be brought back from India by this government? What would happen if Hasina and her coworkers were to be protected by the new government? Who can guarantee that these murderers won’t be able to flee?”
Sentence must be carried out, according to the law.
Mir Mahbubur Rahman Snigdho, whose brother Mir Mugdho was shot dead during the uprising, urged the authorities to bring her back to Bangladesh on Monday as hundreds of people gathered outside the tribunal building to enforce the verdict.
Syed Gazi Rahman, the father of the protester Mutasir Rahman, was standing close to him. He demanded that Hasina be executed “swiftly and publicly” and that the sentence be swiftly and publicly delivered.
Family members of Abu Sayeed welcomed the death sentence against the former prime minister at Bhabnapur Jaforpara village in the northern district of Rangpur, which is 300 kilometers (186 miles) away.
Sayeed was the first victim of the July Uprising, which began with mostly student-led demonstrations against a contentious quota system for government jobs that disproportionately favored the young people who fought for Pakistan’s independence in 1971.
The police fatally shot Sayeed, a student leader, on July 16, 2024, while demonstrating in Rangpur.
“My heart has finally cooled.” I’m satisfied. His father, Mokbul Hossain, called for his daughter to be immediately brought back from India and put to death in Bangladesh.
“My son has vanished. I’m in pain because of it. His mother, Monowara Begum, called for the sentence to be carried out. After the verdict, she claimed, the family gave out candy to those who came by.
Shahriar Khan Anas, the mother of the 10-year-old student who was fatally shot on August 5, 2024 in Dhaka’s Chankharpul neighborhood, claimed the verdict was “only a consolation.”
She said, “Justice will be served the day it is put to death.”
Even 1, 400 death sentences as a mother would not suffice to serve the needs of thousands of mothers, according to the author. When a ruler uses mass murder to cling to power, the world must be aware of the consequences. God may give you some time, but He won’t give you any.
Dipti expressed disappointment with the trial’s outcome regarding former police chief al-Mamun.
Because Abdullah al-Mamun murdered our children as a member of the country’s security forces, he should have received a longer prison term, she said.
No dictator should rise once more.
Following Hasina’s death sentence, several processions took place on Monday in Dhaka and other parts of the nation.
Second-year undergraduate student Ar Rafi, a student in his second year, said they would organize a march to demand Hasina’s extradition from India.
“We’re content for the moment,” we said. However, we want Hasina to be executed and returned from India. He told Al Jazeera, “We, the students, will remain on the streets until her sentence is carried out.”
Following the tribunal’s decision, a group called Maulik Bangla staged a symbolic performance of Hasina’s execution in the Shahbagh intersection area of Dhaka.
According to Sharif Osman bin Hadi, a spokesperson for the non-partisan cultural organization Inquilab Manch (Revolution Front), “This is a message that no dictator should rise again.”
The ruling was welcomed by political parties, including Bangladesh’s main opposition, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
According to BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed, “This decision proves that no matter how powerful a fascist or autocrat becomes, they will one day have to stand in the dock.”
Mia Golam Porwar, a leader of the Jamaat, claimed the ruling demonstrated that “no head of government or powerful political leader is above the law” and that the verdict offers “some measure of comfort” to the families of the people who died during the uprising.
The UN human rights office reiterated its opposition to the death penalty and reaffirmed that it was “an important moment for the victims” when it cited the verdict as “an important moment for the victims.”
The victims “deserved much better,” according to Amnesty International, and the rights organization warned that rushed proceedings in absentia could undermine justice.
The death penalty only adds to human rights violations, according to the author, “but victims need justice and accountability.” It is the most cruel, hateful, and inhumane punishment that has no place in the legal system, it said.
The verdict, according to the victims’ families, was seen as a recognition of the brutality of the crackdown, and raises hopes for a resolution.
Atikul Gazi, a 21-year-old TikToker from Dhaka’s Uttara region who survived being shot at close range on August 5, 2024, but ultimately lost his left arm, said, “This verdict sends a message that justice is inevitable.”
