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‘Secretive’ UAE and Swiss-based firms found to be major crude suppliers to Israel, says report

A joint investigation by two leading research organizations, Oil Change International (OCI) and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO), has pulled back the curtain on a little-scrutinized network of oil traders that have become among the largest suppliers of crude oil to Israel during the ongoing military campaign in Gaza. The investigation identifies Swiss-based Vitol and Dubai-founded Heritage Petroleum FZCO as the key players in this supply chain, which collectively delivered around 22 million barrels of crude to Israel between October 2023 and June 2026, accounting for 11% of the nation’s total crude imports over that period.

What makes the findings particularly striking is that the vast majority of shipments from both traders passed through Ceyhan, a major Turkish Mediterranean port, despite Turkey’s official embargo on Israeli-bound oil trade imposed in May 2024. Researchers also confirmed that two Heritage subsidiaries, classified as shipping servicing firms, are formally registered in Turkey’s national trade registry. While major Western oil giants including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell have already faced widespread public backlash and scrutiny for their roles in supplying energy to Israel during the conflict, the activity of smaller, opaque trading networks in this supply chain has largely flown under the radar until now.

The research team built its findings on trade and shipping data from analytics platform Kpler, cross-referenced with additional data from the London Stock Exchange Group and verified via satellite imagery confirming vessel arrivals at Israel’s Ashkelon port. Both Vitol and Heritage operate as dual charterers and traders, meaning they take full ownership of the crude they ship to Israel. Of more than 250 tracked shipments carrying over 200 million barrels of crude from 19 source countries to Israel, the two firms ranked among the largest charterers for Israeli-bound cargo.

In response to the report’s findings, a Vitol spokesperson stated that the company conducts all its business activities in full compliance with applicable local and international laws. When Middle East Eye reached out to Heritage Petroleum for comment, no response was received prior to publication.

Turkey’s foreign ministry has pushed back against suggestions that it is failing to enforce its own embargo, noting that all crude moving through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which carries Caspian Sea crude from Azerbaijan to Ceyhan, is required to adhere to Turkey’s ban on trade with Israel. “No vessel loading from Ceyhan is authorised or executed with Israel designated as the delivery destination,” a ministry source told Middle East Eye. The source explained that once tankers leave the Ceyhan terminal, cargo ownership can transfer to third-party buyers while in transit, opening a loophole for changes to the final destination. The ministry also clarified that Turkish state energy firms hold only minority stakes in the BTC pipeline project, and the firm operating Turkey’s section of the pipeline has no commercial authority over the sale or routing of cargo, adding that any sale of Turkish state-owned crude to Israel is “entirely out of the question.”

Vitol, one of the world’s leading independent oil traders with a global footprint including major offices in London, Geneva, and Houston, has a long history of controversy tied to unethical business practices. The company pleaded guilty to grand larceny charges in 2007 for paying $13 million in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi officials to secure lucrative oil supply contracts. In 2026, it became the first firm to secure U.S. authorization to sell Venezuelan crude after the detention of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. When approached by OCI and SOMO for comment, Vitol denied profiting from war and conflict in Venezuela, Ukraine, Iran, or Iraq, but declined to address its role as a charterer of Israeli-bound crude. Between October 2023 and June 2026 alone, Vitol shipped nearly 14 million barrels of crude to Israel, with its shipment volumes spiking sharply in 2023 after the outbreak of the Gaza conflict.

Far less is known about Heritage Petroleum, which was only founded in December 2023 and sent its first chartered shipment of crude to Israel in November 2024, more than a year into the conflict. Despite its recent creation, it quickly rose to become Israel’s second-largest crude supplier, delivering a total of 8.3 million barrels, all of which departed from Turkish ports after the embargo was implemented. “Heritage has appeared out of nowhere to be a leading charterer of fuel to Israel, and its operations are very opaque,” noted Andy Rowell, contributing editor at OCI. “We still do not know who the board of the company are or who the people with significant control are.”

Beyond the two registered Turkish subsidiaries, researchers found that little public information exists about the firms. Limosa Trading Logistics Inc., one of the two Heritage subsidiaries, took its website offline after SOMO’s strategic litigation lead Lydia de Leeuw reached out for comment, and phone calls went unanswered. The second subsidiary, Shiptech Maritime Ltd., initially provided a statement on behalf of both itself and Heritage, claiming the firms were not violating Turkey’s trade ban with Israel. When de Leeuw followed up with additional questions and presented corroborating data from LSEG and port control inspections confirming the shipments, Shiptech declined further comment. A conversation with Shiptech’s Turkish head of operations confirmed that Shiptech and Heritage are the same entity. No responses to Middle East Eye’s requests for comment were received from either subsidiary prior to publication.

The investigation’s findings raise serious questions about how effectively Turkey is enforcing its embargo on Israeli energy trade. While researchers acknowledge that crude oil has legitimate civilian uses in Israel, they stress that the link between imported crude and Israeli military operations is unambiguous. “What we do know is that Israel relies heavily on imported crude oil,” Rowell explained. “In 2024, for example, the country imported 97 percent of its crude oil. The imported oil is refined in Ashdod and Haifa and both refineries have been clear that they are supplying the military. Bazan Group, which owns the Haifa refinery, has been clear that it supplies the Israeli military.”

The report also highlights the enabling role that national governments hold over this ongoing energy flow, and puts forward clear policy recommendations. It calls on major oil-producing countries that supply the crude, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria, to implement formal embargoes on Israeli-bound crude, and urges Turkey to strengthen enforcement against firms exploiting loopholes to facilitate shipments. It also notes that the countries hosting the traders’ headquarters – the United Arab Emirates for Heritage and the United Kingdom for Vitol – hold significant policy tools to restrict and halt these shipments.

Rowell particularly emphasized the implications of the findings for the UK, given new Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband’s pledges to reset the UK’s relations with Israel. “This will be a real test – Vitol has huge operations out of London; will the government take action against them?” he said.

The report also notes that the full scope of the two traders’ roles may be even larger than documented, as roughly half of all Israeli-bound crude shipments analyzed for the investigation did not list a named charterer, leaving open the possibility that additional undisclosed activity by the two firms is unaccounted for.

3 9 月, 2026
Watch: JD Vance ‘extremely sceptical’ over alleged strike on Iranian wedding

A growing diplomatic and political controversy has emerged in recent days following Iranian allegations that a United States missile strike targeted a wedding gathering, leaving four dead including two young children – a claim that has now drawn public scepticism from prominent American political figure JD Vance, who says he remains “extremely sceptical” of the official Iranian account.

Iranian government officials have directly leveled accusations against the U.S., framing the reported strike as a deliberate act of violence against civilians that qualifies as a war crime under international law. According to Iranian statements, the attack unfolded when a missile hit a venue hosting a wedding celebration, ending the lives of four attendees. Two of those killed were confirmed to be children, a detail that has amplified the anger and condemnation coming out of Tehran in the aftermath of the incident.

The allegations come at a moment of already heightened tensions between the United States and Iran, with long-standing disputes over nuclear policy, regional military activity, and diplomatic relations creating a fragile geopolitical environment across the Middle East. Even as Iranian officials push their narrative of American culpability, Vance, a leading U.S. conservative voice, has pushed back against accepting the claim at face value, publicly stating that he doubts the official version of events that has been presented by Iranian authorities. Vance’s comments add a layer of domestic political conversation to the international controversy, as U.S. officials have not yet formally confirmed or denied involvement in the strike.

Widespread international attention has turned to the incident amid competing claims, with global observers calling for a transparent, independent investigation to clarify who was responsible for the attack, confirm the details of the casualties, and determine what exactly took place at the wedding venue. The incident has already stoked new fears of further escalation between Washington and Tehran, at a time when the international community is already grappling with multiple ongoing conflicts across the Middle East.

3 9 月, 2026
Data centres are booming in Australia – but at what cost?

Nestled in Sydney’s desirable lower north shore, the quiet suburb of Lane Cove has become the frontline of a growing national debate: can Australia deliver on its ambition to become a global data centre hub, while protecting the quality of life for local residents and meeting its environmental targets?

For local mother Lucy, the reality of living near a data centre is already an unavoidable part of daily life. Just 350 meters from her front door, an existing facility emits a constant, low humming that seeps into her home every night as she tucks her child into bed. “I’ll hear it and think, ‘What is that? What is going on?’” she says. What Lucy and hundreds of her neighbors are now bracing for is far more disruptive: plans to build four additional large-scale data centres in Lane Cove’s local industrial park, which would turn the already affected suburb into one of Australia’s densest data centre clusters.

Australia’s rapid rise as a top global destination for data centre investment did not happen by accident. Global investors are drawn to the country’s abundant available land, political stability, skilled workforce, established Five Eyes security framework, and untapped renewable energy potential. The AI boom that followed ChatGPT’s 2022 launch supercharged this trend: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman noted earlier this year that Australia has all the ingredients to become the world’s data centre capital if it chooses to pursue that goal.

Right now, the country is moving full speed ahead to meet that demand. There are already 162 operational data centres across Australia, with 90 more in active planning stages, and more than AU$155 billion (£80 billion) in committed investment waiting to be deployed. If approved, a 1-gigawatt facility in western Sydney would become Australia’s largest single energy user and one of the biggest data centres on the planet. Just 100 meters from another western Sydney community in Marsden Park, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest data centre is already under construction.

Industry leaders argue this growth is non-negotiable for Australia’s future digital and economic prosperity. Belinda Dennett, CEO of Data Centres Australia, points out that modern digital services from robotic surgery to air traffic control to streaming platforms demand minimal latency, requiring local data storage and processing to avoid dangerous or frustrating delays. With 13.6 million Australian AI users every month – ranking the country sixth globally for AI activity – local data infrastructure will lower barriers for homegrown Australian AI companies to emerge and compete. “If we don’t build infrastructure here, we get none of the value chain,” Dennett says. “We are just importing tools from someone else and we become just a user.”

Leading business analysts add that the data centre boom has already been a critical economic buffer for Australia. Jon Whittle, a former digital research director at Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and a leading AI business advisor, notes that without the surge in data centre investment over the past two years, Australia would likely have slipped into recession. “There’s some very serious considerations around this, but my main message would be we need to lean into it,” he says. New South Wales Treasurer Daniel Mookhey echoes this view, arguing that data centre investment is driving a parallel boom in renewable energy development, helping the country phase out aging coal-fired power plants without passing the full cost on to households. “We don’t see the two as unrelated,” Mookhey says. “We see data centres allowing us to replace a lot of our old coal-fired power with clean, green renewable energy with the private sector picking up a large amount of the tab.” The investment, he adds, will create new industries that employ future generations.

But critics and local communities are pushing back hard, raising urgent alarms about the massive environmental, infrastructure and social costs of the current unregulated growth. The most pressing concerns center on energy: the Australian Energy Market Operator projects that national data centre energy demand will triple by 2030. The independent Climate Council warns that without massive new renewable generation and storage capacity, data centre demand could push electricity prices up by 26% in New South Wales by 2035. Because data centres require uninterrupted, consistent power that variable wind and solar cannot yet deliver at scale, many operators are turning to fossil fuels: a recent Greenpeace Australia Pacific report found no major data centre operator has adequately proven its claims of driving renewable growth. In the U.S., many operators have opted to build new gas-fired power plants rather than wait for renewable capacity to expand, and Australian firm Cloud Carrier is already planning three gas-fired stations to power its existing and future data centres 90 minutes outside Sydney. If the grid fails, most data centres, including the existing one in Lane Cove, rely on polluting diesel backup generators.

Water scarcity is an equally urgent concern in drought-prone Australia. Data centres require massive volumes of water to cool overheating servers, with some large facilities consuming up to 40 million liters per day – enough to supply 80,000 households. The Water Services Association of Australia already projects Sydney will need to expand drinking water supplies over the next decade to meet population growth, but Sydney Water estimates data centres could consume 25% of the city’s drinking water by 2035. If that happens, households will be forced to bear the cost of more expensive alternative water sources like desalination.

For Lane Cove’s local leaders and residents, these national concerns have become a local crisis. Deputy Mayor Rochelle Flood says the four proposed data centres would force 50% of existing businesses in the industrial park to relocate, taking thousands of local jobs with them. Felipe Tanaka, a local business manager who has already been told he must relocate to make way for a new data centre, says the disruption will have long-term impacts on local workers. “We never knew that something like this would happen,” Tanaka says. “Thousands of jobs are going to be gone from this area in the next few years. Most of our 300 to 400 workers here are locals. Having to move will probably see half of my employees gone.” While data centres create hundreds of construction jobs, they only employ around 100 full-time workers once operational, far fewer than the existing businesses they displace. One proposed facility sits just 16 meters from the nearest residential home and 160 meters from a local primary school, and residents say they were never consulted about the plan to turn their suburb into a data centre hub. Locals also fear the development will threaten nearby Lane Cove National Park and the Parramatta River, core natural assets for the community.

In July, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced new regulations that will require large-scale data centres to guarantee sufficient power supplies, cap water use, and cover the cost of any required new water infrastructure. But the legislation will not take effect until 2027, and will only apply to new proposals – leaving all currently planned and under-construction projects exempt. Community and environmental groups are now calling for a full moratorium on all new data centre development until stronger safeguards are in place.

“We’ve got the government rolling out the red carpet saying we want to be the data centre capital of the world,” Flood says. “But can we actually do that sustainably or is it going to set us back in terms of net zero and our water storage targets?” Critics add that beyond environmental costs, the public has little clarity on what the data centres will actually be used for, with much of the capacity powering low-value AI activity that delivers little benefit to Australian communities. “They’re telling us this is essential… that we need to have these centres in our neighbourhood but they’re not saying what it’s for,” Flood says. “When our drinking water, energy and land is being used for generative AI slop, that is not giving any value back.”

3 9 月, 2026
US billionaire Leon Black defies summons and sues Epstein panel

A high-stakes conflict has erupted between billionaire investor Leon Black and a U.S. congressional committee probing the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after Black refused to comply with a subpoena and instead launched a legal challenge against the panel’s investigative demands.

The House Oversight Committee had ordered Black to produce confidential nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) tied to his past dealings and sit for a sworn on-camera deposition, a series of demands that Black now calls illegitimate in his federal lawsuit, filed Thursday in Washington. In his legal filing, Black argues the subpoenas are invalid and bear no legitimate connection to any legislative goal the committee is tasked with pursuing. He also claims forcing the disclosure of the sealed NDAs would harm third-party women who negotiated for strict confidentiality, have no public ties to Epstein, and have never agreed to release their privacy protections.

This confrontation is the latest escalation of a drama that first unfolded in June, when Black walked out of a voluntary testimony session mid-interview after lawmakers began asking questions about NDAs he had allegedly signed. Committee members confirmed the walkout at the time, and the subpoenas at the center of the current lawsuit were issued in the immediate aftermath of that incident.

Black has repeatedly and vehemently denied any wrongdoing connected to his professional and personal ties to Epstein. In his June appearance, he told the committee he had employed Epstein as a wealth management advisor over decades of their relationship, and paid Epstein a total of $158 million for what he says were legitimate financial services. He maintains he had no knowledge of Epstein’s well-documented sex trafficking activities until Epstein was formally charged in July 2019. Black’s name and interactions appear in the trove of Epstein investigative files released by the U.S. Department of Justice, though officials have stressed that inclusion in the files does not amount to an accusation of criminal conduct.

In a statement accompanying the lawsuit Thursday, Black’s attorney Susan Estrich blasted the committee’s actions as an overreach of congressional power. “This is no longer about finding the truth about Epstein. It is about trying to destroy Mr Black,” Estrich said. “We were left with no choice but to file this lawsuit in response to an abuse of Congressional power.”

Committee members have pushed back hard on Black’s challenge, framing his refusal to appear as open defiance of congressional authority. “By refusing to testify today, Leon Black is now defying two Congressional subpoenas,” Representative Robert Garcia, a member of the House Oversight Committee, said in a post-deadline statement. “His connections to Epstein and his unwillingness to cooperate are unacceptable. We must hold him in contempt immediately.”

A contempt of Congress citation would allow the committee to refer the matter to the Department of Justice for potential criminal prosecution, a step that could open Black up to new legal jeopardy. Committee Chairman James Comer echoed Garcia’s criticism, noting that Black’s testimony is a key piece of the panel’s broader Epstein investigation. “It’s a shame Leon Black is hiding behind litigation rather than provide answers to the American people,” Comer said. “Mr Black’s testimony is crucial to our investigation.”

The fight over the NDAs stems in part from a years-old legal dispute between Black and Guzel Ganieva, a former Russian model with whom Black had a six-year extramarital affair. Court records show Ganieva filed a now-dismissed lawsuit against Black that included abuse allegations, claiming Black drafted an NDA in 2015 to force her to stay silent about their relationship. Released Epstein files show that Epstein advised Black on the situation, even suggesting in an email to Black’s assistant that Black hire former law enforcement officials to confront Ganieva. Black has denied Ganieva’s accusations, calling the claims an extortion attempt, and Estrich has dismissed the allegations as “demonstrably false.” A judge ultimately dismissed Ganieva’s lawsuit, citing the NDA she signed and the roughly $9 million she received in the years after entering the confidentiality agreement.

Black stepped down from his leadership role at Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm he co-founded, in 2021. At the time, he cited the unrelenting public attention and media scrutiny surrounding his ties to Epstein as having taken a significant toll on his health.

3 9 月, 2026
Blair Institute denies former UK PM asked PA to remove ‘Palestine’ from school textbooks

A high-stakes controversy has erupted over allegations tied to the Trump administration’s newly formed Gaza-focused Board of Peace, after a former senior British diplomat accused former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair of carrying an extraordinary demand to the Palestinian Authority: scrub all references to “Palestine” from official school curricula and replace the term with the Jewish historical name “Samaria”. The claim, first published as an exclusive report by independent outlet Middle East Eye, has been forcefully and repeatedly denied by Blair’s Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which calls the allegation a baseless fabrication.

3 9 月, 2026
Xi’s Egypt visit tests Cairo’s balancing act

On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his first official visit to Egypt in a decade, holding high-level talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo that produced a wide-ranging package of signed agreements, memoranda of understanding, and a formal joint statement guiding future bilateral cooperation.

The landmark trip was deliberately scheduled to coincide with the 70th anniversary of formal diplomatic relations between the two nations, and it ran parallel to the joint Egyptian-Chinese “Eagles of Civilisation” air force exercise, which launched on August 22 to deepen military cooperation and interoperability between the two countries’ air services. It also came on the heels of a public report revealing that Chinese tech giant Huawei had submitted a bid to deliver more than 2,000 artificial intelligence computing chips to Egypt for a national data center project.

Xi arrived in Cairo on Tuesday, greeted at the airport by Sisi alongside a ceremonial welcome that featured folk performances, and young Egyptian attendees waving both national flags and wearing shirts printed with Xi’s portrait. Cairo authorities temporarily shut down multiple major arterial roads to secure Xi’s itinerary, which included visits to Ittihadiya Palace and the Grand Egyptian Museum.

At the core of the new cooperation agreements is Sisi’s formal announcement of the third expansion phase of the Egyptian-Chinese Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), a flagship joint infrastructure project that already hosts roughly 200 operating companies and holds a total of $4 billion in cumulative investment. Beyond trade and industrial development, the new accords expand bilateral collaboration in renewable energy, artificial intelligence, and Egypt’s ongoing digital transformation, while reaffirming the two countries’ commitment to aligning Egypt’s national Vision 2030 development plan with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Raphael Angieri, managing director and co-founder of the Sino-Arabica Project, explained the strategic logic of China’s investment in regional economic zones to Middle East Eye: “China is building these economic zones as a way of spreading the Chinese model of development.” Angieri added that the offshore zones simplify export logistics for Chinese firms, while also allowing China to bypass international sanctions and other trade barriers by expanding manufacturing capacity outside its own borders.

The expansion of the SCZone comes at a defining economic juncture for Egypt. In 2024, Suez Canal toll revenue plummeted to less than $4 billion, down from a record high of $10.3 billion in 2023, after repeated Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea forced global carriers to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. More recently, rising tensions that have threatened Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz have pushed a growing number of oil tankers back to the Red Sea shipping lanes, setting the stage for a potential rebound in canal traffic.

For Egypt, these new Chinese-backed industrial clusters within the SCZone offer far greater operational efficiency that will help Cairo capitalize on projected growth in Suez Canal traffic, Angieri noted. Islam Alhalawany, principal at QFLA Advisory and a leading specialist in Asia-Middle East relations, added that Chinese investment in the SCZone integrates with existing regional trade corridors designed to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, most notably the Europe-Egypt-NEOM-GCC Corridor. This Saudi-backed mixed land-and-sea route connects European and Gulf markets without requiring transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

In the formal joint statement released after the talks, Egypt reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to the One China principle, explicitly describing Taiwan as an “integral part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China,” voicing full support for China’s 2027 BRICS presidency, and pledging not to interfere in any of China’s internal affairs. In return, China addressed Egypt’s core priority of Nile River water rights, a sticking point in Cairo’s years-long dispute with Addis Ababa over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt argues will drastically reduce critical downstream water flows. China affirmed its “awareness of the vital importance of the Nile River for Egypt as the main lifeline” of the country.

Alhalawany emphasized that with both Egypt and Ethiopia now holding BRICS membership, “China has a great opportunity to mediate and guarantee agreement over the Nile water.” He added that China’s potential mediation role could also extend to other long-running conflicts across the Horn of Africa region.

On the technology front, Huawei’s public tender offer for 2,008 Ascend-series AI chips – 1,408 of which are the company’s top-tier Ascend 950-series processors – has emerged as a new test of Egypt’s delicate balancing act between Washington and Beijing. According to reporting from Bloomberg, U.S. officials are currently pressuring American tech giants including Microsoft, Nvidia, and Advanced Micro Devices Inc to submit a competing counteroffer to secure the Egyptian contract. However, despite discussions of AI cooperation featuring prominently in Wednesday’s bilateral talks, Huawei’s specific bid was never mentioned by name in any of the official government documents released after the visit.

Bloomberg also reported that Huawei’s bid includes a partnership with Chinese tech firm iFlytek Co, a company that has appeared on the U.S. trade blacklist since 2019 over alleged involvement in the surveillance of Muslim minority groups in China’s Xinjiang region. It remains unclear what specific use cases Egyptian authorities would have for iFlytek’s technology under the proposed deal. While technical reports note that the computing performance of Huawei’s AI chips lags behind that of top products from Nvidia and other U.S. manufacturers, the acceptance of Huawei’s bid would still mark a major strategic shift in the global contest for control of AI infrastructure worldwide.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson told Bloomberg that Egypt is “one of dozens of countries” with whom Washington is currently discussing AI cooperation. But Alhalawany argued that Egypt is unlikely to secure a viable, affordable offer from U.S. firms. “Financially stressed Egypt will likely afford the Chinese option in light of the intensifying AI catch-up race, especially that Beijing bundles digital infrastructure projects with lucrative financing packages,” he told Middle East Eye. He added that the premium pricing of U.S. AI solutions makes wealthy Gulf economies far more attractive customers for American vendors than cash-strapped Egypt.

Even so, Bloomberg reports that U.S. officials view Egypt’s consideration of Huawei’s bid as a significant strategic development, given Egypt’s status as Africa’s second-largest economy. The omission of Huawei’s bid from all official statements after Wednesday’s talks could signal two different outcomes, analysts note: it may reflect Cairo’s reluctance to publicly align with China on sensitive AI infrastructure issues, or it may indicate that Egyptian officials are still weighing multiple competing offers, including a potential proposal from a U.S. firm.

Angieri noted that Egypt has long prioritized maintaining its strategic flexibility, holding U.S. military support and security guarantees while also drawing significant investment and infrastructure financing from China. Alhalawany echoed this assessment, stating that “Cairo is emerging as one of a few points of convergence between Beijing and Washington.” He added that “talks are significant but in ways that do not conflict with Egypt-US relations.”

This balancing act is not new for Cairo. Since taking office in 2014, Sisi has traveled to Beijing eight times, with his most recent visit taking place in 2024. China has already served as the primary financier for some of Egypt’s most high-profile recent projects, including the new administrative capital’s central business district and the light rail line connecting the new capital to Greater Cairo. Bilateral trade between China and Egypt reached roughly $20.8 billion in 2025, compared to total annual U.S. foreign assistance to Egypt of roughly $1.4 billion and a 2025 bilateral U.S.-Egypt trade volume of just over $12 billion.

The joint statement also included a shared call for reform of “the international system and international financial institutions to make them fairer, more representative of developing countries.” As Alhalawany put it, “China favours change as an aspiring global power, and Egypt views that the current system is unfair to developing countries.”

Looking forward, how Egypt navigates the competing demands of Washington and Beijing remains an open question. Cairo has not yet announced a final decision on Huawei’s AI chip bid, and no U.S. company has formally confirmed a competing offer. For now, the most concrete outcome of Xi’s visit – the expansion of the Suez Canal Economic Zone – is set to take shape along the banks of one of the world’s most critical waterways, a visible marker of China’s deepening strategic footprint in the Middle East.

3 9 月, 2026
British police try to track down theft of 70,000 pints worth of Guinness stout

A major beer theft has sparked a police investigation in northwest England, coming just weeks after a similarly high-profile stolen beer case captured public attention across the Atlantic.

Cheshire Constabulary announced Thursday that two full trailer truckloads of Guinness, Ireland’s iconic creamy dark stout, were stolen from an industrial depot near the city of Liverpool this week. The stolen cargo amounts to roughly 800 barrels, which equals around 70,000 pints of the popular beverage. The Guinness itself is valued at 115,000 pounds ($155,000), while the two empty trailers stolen alongside the beer add an extra 50,000 pounds ($67,000) to the total stolen value, bringing the combined worth of the missing goods to approximately $222,000.

The heist unfolded on Monday night, when two suspects driving stolen trucks pulled into the Runcorn industrial park where the depot is located. The pair hooked up the loaded trailers and drove off with the entire shipment undetected before the theft was discovered. The beer was originally en route to local pubs across the region to stock taps for regular patrons.

Detective Sergeant Gary McClatchy, the lead officer on the case, leaned into the brand’s famous advertising slogan in a statement to the press. ‘It is famously said that ‘Guinness is good for you,’ but that is only the case when it has been bought and paid for,’ McClatchy said. ‘We will settle for nothing less than the full recovery of all the items stolen.’

This large-scale beer theft comes amid a strange recent trend of high-value beverage heists, and follows just weeks after a similar stolen beer incident drew widespread social media attention in the United States. In that case, thieves broke into a Southern California warehouse and made off with roughly 34,000 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon, a popular budget lager. Officials with the Pabst company valued their stolen cargo at $70,000, and put out a $20,000 reward for any information that leads to the recovery of the stolen beer. The company garnered viral attention for its playful yet firm message to the thieves posted on Instagram: ‘To the thief: we don’t fault you for wanting to brag to your friends how much PBR you have, we just wish you obtained it the honorable way. P.s. this is real and we are deadly serious.’

As of Thursday, British investigators have not announced any suspects or leads in the Guinness heist, and are asking anyone with information about the suspicious activity at the Runcorn industrial park on Monday night to come forward to assist with the investigation.

3 9 月, 2026
Watch: Gloria Steinem dedicated her life to fight for women’s equality

Gloria Steinem, the trailblazing feminist leader who reshaped global conversations around gender equity and guided the American women’s liberation movement through decades of grassroots activism, has died at the age of 92. The confirmation of her passing on Wednesday came from the organization she founded, the Gloria Steinem Foundation.

Over the course of more than 60 years, Steinem built an unparalleled legacy as a writer, organizer, and advocate, turning once-marginalized demands for gender equality into a mainstream national and international movement. She rose to prominence in the 1960s as a voice for women’s rights, co-founding iconic feminist media outlets like Ms. magazine to center women’s experiences and challenge systemic gender discrimination. From fighting for reproductive freedom to addressing pay inequity and gender-based violence, Steinem never wavered in her commitment to building a more just world for all marginalized genders.

Her work extended beyond policy advocacy; she inspired generations of activists to step into leadership, mentored countless emerging organizers, and helped reframe public understanding of what gender equality could look like. Tributes are already beginning to pour in from across the globe, with activists, political leaders, and ordinary people honoring her decades of tireless work that changed the trajectory of women’s rights globally.

3 9 月, 2026
Israel admits it assassinated senior Assad official in Syria in 2008

After 16 years of official denial and behind-the-scenes speculation, Israel has for the first time publicly confirmed its role in the 2008 targeted assassination of Muhammad Suleiman, a senior military and intelligence official who served as a top aide to former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The long-awaited admission comes in a new memoir from Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister at the time of the killing, marking the first high-profile, on-the-record confirmation of an operation that had only been hinted at in anonymous leaks and diplomatic accusations for decades.

Suleiman was far more than a standard presidential aide: he held broad oversight over all of Assad’s most sensitive military and intelligence projects, and was explicitly tasked with leading construction and security efforts for a secret undeclared nuclear reactor being built by the former regime in Deir Ezzor, eastern Syria. The killing came roughly a year after Israeli warplanes destroyed the partially completed reactor in a September 2007 airstrike, an operation also carried out during Olmert’s premiership.

New details of the covert assassination are laid out in excerpts of Olmert’s book published by Israeli news outlet Ynet. Olmert recounts that on the night of the attack, Suleiman was relaxing with guests on an oceanfront balcony at his vacation property. Under cover of complete darkness, Israeli naval commandos moved into position, splitting into two teams that advanced to within 150 meters of the balcony on opposite sides. After positively identifying Suleiman, even with crowds of civilian beachgoers nearby who never detected the operatives, the commandos received the green light to strike. Olmert writes that three bullets were fired directly at Suleiman, all striking him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. The operatives then withdrew without incident to a waiting extraction boat off the coast, disappearing before any local security forces could respond.

While previous unofficial information had linked Israel to the attack — most notably a 2015 leak of classified documents from the U.S. National Security Agency that pointed to Israeli commando responsibility — Olmert’s book represents the first formal, public acknowledgement from a senior Israeli official. For its part, the now-defunct Assad regime consistently blamed Israel for Suleiman’s killing from the day of the attack, despite Israel’s years of official silence.

The timing of the admission, which coincides with the collapse of Assad’s government in December 2024, aligns with a newly released United Nations report that independently confirms what Israel and Western intelligence agencies have long alleged: the Assad regime was actively developing an illicit nuclear weapons program at the Deir Ezzor site. According to the UN report, nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency conducted verification work at multiple Syrian locations in August 2024, shortly before Assad’s ouster, and confirmed the site’s purpose as a secret nuclear reactor.

In his memoir, Olmert emphasized Suleiman’s central role in the covert nuclear project, noting that Suleiman “had a hand in everything” related to the Deir Ezzor facility. As a reward for his leadership on the project, Olmert added, Assad gifted Suleiman a brand-new Mercedes-Benz just one month before the assassination, a public gesture of gratitude for his work advancing the regime’s nuclear ambitions.

Olmert’s political legacy is complicated: he left office in 2009 and was ultimately convicted on bribery charges in 2014, serving a six-year prison sentence before his release in 2017. The publication of his memoir has brought new attention to the covert operations of his premiership, which reshaped Middle East security dynamics long before the collapse of the Assad regime in late 2024.

3 9 月, 2026
Scientists studying cockroach milk and nose-blowing win Ig Nobel prizes for quirky science

For 35 years, the Ig Nobel Prizes — the beloved satirical awards that celebrate delightfully odd, creative scientific work — have called the United States their home. This year, however, a shift driven by global travel and visa barriers brought the iconic ceremony to European soil for the first time, with the 2024 event kicking off last Thursday in Zurich, Switzerland.

Hosted by *Annals of Improbable Research*, the digital magazine that founded the awards, the location change came after organizers cited growing concerns that international attendees would face barriers securing U.S. travel visas, making attendance risky and unfeasible for many guests. “During the past year, it has become unsafe for our guests to visit the country,” Marc Abrahams, the ceremony’s long-time master of ceremonies and editor of *Annals of Improbable Research*, told the Associated Press in a March interview.

The tradition of celebrating unconventional scientific ingenuity remained fully intact at the new Zurich venue, where ten research teams took home the prize, each receiving a custom-designed trophy blending the shape of a mushroom and a human foot. This year’s honorees spanned wildly unexpected areas of inquiry: a team of researchers from the University of Oxford and Florida Institute of Technology reconstructed the evolutionary history of kissing, while another project explored the physics of nose-blowing, honoring the late Dr. Tokuji Unno for his work. Other winning projects include an analysis of cockroach milk’s properties, and a massive global experiment that saw 1,000 pairs of underwear buried across more than 25 countries to study how soil organisms drive decomposition.

True to long-standing ceremony tradition, the event opened with audience members folding paper airplanes and throwing them toward the stage — a whimsical ritual that has become a hallmark of the Ig Nobel experience. Looking ahead, organizers have mapped out a rotating future for the awards: future ceremonies will alternate between Zurich and other European cities, with the 2027 event already scheduled to take place in Antwerp, Belgium. While the awards spent decades hosted at top U.S. academic institutions including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University, there are no immediate plans to return the ceremony to U.S. soil.

Notably, the satirical Ig Nobel Prizes are entirely independent of the prestigious Nobel Prizes, which are scheduled to have their annual winner announcements in early October. This year’s coverage is a contribution from the Associated Press, with science and health reporting supported by the AP Fund for Journalism and private philanthropic foundations, with AP maintaining full editorial control over all content.

3 9 月, 2026