Jordan’s King Abdullah II has accepted the resignations of two ministers in the aftermath of the deadly floods that struck the country’s Dead Sea region last month.

In a decree, the king accepted the resignations of Tourism Minister Lena Annab and Education Minister Azmi Mahafzeh, according to a statement issued by the Jordanian Royal Court on Sunday.

On Thursday, Annab announced that she would leave her post via Twitter.  

“In light of the current political and general climate, and the painful time our beloved country is going through, I have handed in my resignation today as Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, and I will be leaving it to the Prime Minister to do what he deems fit. May God bless Jordan and its great people under the honorable Hashemite leadership,” the minister said.

In another decree, the Jordanian monarch appointed Justice Minister Bassam Samir Talhouni as acting education minister and Minister of State Majd Shwekeh as acting tourism minister.

The resignation of the two ministers came as a result of popular and parliamentary pressure on the government after the floods disaster, which killed at least 21 people and injured dozens.

Most of those killed were students and teachers whose bus was swept away by the floodwaters during a school trip.

Late last month, the Jordanian government admitted responsibility for failure to deal with the flash floods.

Saudi Prince Khaled bin Talal, a nephew of King Salman, has been released after almost a year in detention, according to his relatives.

Princess Reem bint Alwaleed, Prince Khaled’s niece, and two other relatives shared photos on Twitter on Friday showing the prince embracing his son, who has been in a coma for several years, and other family members.

“Thank god for your safety,” the princess wrote on Twitter.

The Saudi government has not offered an official explanation for Prince Khaled’s arrest nor the conditions of his release.

Prince Khaled’s brother, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, was among more than 200 princes and other senior figures detained at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel over corruption allegations in November last year.

الحمدلله على سلامتك pic.twitter.com/drFWupyKQy

— ريم بنت الوليد (@Reem_Alwaleed) November 2, 2018

Prince Khaled’s release comes as the kingdom faces international pressure over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside its consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

“The killing of Jamal Khashoggi has left the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its weakest diplomatic position since the horrific terror attacks of September 11,” Ali Shihabi, head of the Arabia Foundation think-tank, a pro-Saudi institution, wrote in a report published on Friday.

“In the aftermath of the understandable global outrage at the Khashoggi murder, something will clearly have to give.”

Shihabi called for the release of “women activists and other moderate critics of the government” who have been detained in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s widely condemned crackdown on dissent in recent months.

November crackdown

According to the Wall Street Journal, Prince Khaled, Prince Alwaleed’s brother, was detained for 11 months for criticising the November crackdown.

Prince Alwaleed was released in early January after an undisclosed financial agreement with the government.

It appeared similar to deals that authorities struck with most other detainees in exchange for their freedom.

The government critics said the crackdown was an attempt by the crown prince to sideline his potential rivals and consolidate power.

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

US voters go to the polls on Tuesday, November 6, to take part in midterm elections that will help define the remaining two years of President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs in the midterms, as well as 35 seats in the Senate, and 39 governorships.

Trump’s Republican party currently has a majority in the Senate and House of Representatives, but failure to hold on to either could result in political deadlock for the US leader’s most ambitious policies.

According to the latest opinion polls, the Democrats have a good shot at taking the lower house of Congress, but the Republicans are predicted to maintain control of the Senate.

Follow all the major updates, leading to the vote:

Saturday, November 3 

Racist robocalls hit Georgia race

A wave of robocalls using racist language went out in Georgia in recent days apparently targeted at undermining the campaign of former state politician Stacey Abrams, who is running to become the first black female governor in the United States, according to her and her rival’s campaign.

The calls impersonated media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who earlier this week campaigned with Abrams, and also featured anti-Semitic language, according to audio of the call heard by Reuters.

Both Abrams and her rival, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, denounced the calls, with the Republican calling them “absolutely disgusting.”

The issue of voter suppression has been central to the race in Georgia, where Kemp is the state’s top election overseer.

Two federal courts on Friday issued rulings ordering the state to allow some 3,000 naturalized US citizens to vote in Tuesday’s elections and prevent the state from throwing out some absentee ballots.

A similarly racist round of calls went out in August in Florida, targeting Democratic candidate Andre Gillum, who is black.

Early voting turnout soars

As of Friday night, almost 32.4 million people had cast ballots early across the United States, according to The Election Project at the University of Florida, which tracks turnout. That is up more than 50 percent from the 20.5 million early votes cast in all of 2014, the last federal election when the White House was not at stake.

Trump on campaign blitz

Trump is hitting the campaign trial hard in the last few days before the midterm elect. He held rallies in Montana on Saturday, and he has a number scheduled for Sunday and Monday.

He’s in the midst of a final sprint to Tuesday’s midterm elections, and he’ll be in Montana and Florida later Saturday to campaign for Republican candidates.

The president says in an early morning tweet that “Everyone is excited about the Jobs Numbers – 250,000 new jobs in October. Also, wages rising. Wow!”

The government reported Friday that employers added 250,000 jobs last month. Unemployment remains low and pay rose at a healthy pace.

Trump held rallies Friday in West Virginia and Indianapolis, where he stayed overnight.

Trump opened those rallies by highlighting the economic new

Friday, November 2

Washington state lawmaker embroiled in ‘Biblical war’ controversy

In the northwestern US state of Washington, a Republican state politician is facing backlash for distributing a document outlining the guidelines for a “holy army” and advocating killing people who violate “Biblical law”.

With criticism mounting, some donors have asked state representative Matt Shea to return their campaign contributions.

Shea, who represents Spokane Valley in conservative eastern Washington, is seeking a sixth term in the state House and has been under fire since he acknowledged in a Facebook video last week that he had distributed a four-page document titled, “Biblical Basis for War” to some of his supporters.

The document condemns abortion and same-sex marriage and says how those who don’t follow biblical law should be punished, The Spokesman-Review reported. At one point, the document says, “If they do not yield, kill all males.”

Nigerian army posts Trump video to justify deadly fire

The Nigerian army cited comments by US President Donald Trump to justify opening fire on Shia protesters earlier this week.

In the wake of the deadly violence earlier this week, the US embassy in Abuja urged the Nigerian government to “conduct a thorough investigation of the events and to take appropriate action to hold accountable those responsible for violations of Nigerian law”.

But that did not stop the army from pointing to Trump’s comments about Central American migrants and refugees as justification.

The army’s official Twitter account shared a video of Trump suggesting that US soldiers could respond with force to migrants who throw rocks on the US border. “When they throw rocks … consider it as a rifle,” Trump said in the video.

The video has since been deleted.

US activists confront far-right Republican over white nationalism

At a town hall event on Thursday night, Kaleb Van Fosson, a member of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, likened King’s views to those of Robert Bowers, who has been charged with shooting dead 11 Jewish worshipers in a Pennsylvania synagogue.

“You and the shooter share an ideology that is anti-immigration,” Van Fosson said.

But King interrupted him. “Do not associate me with the shooter whatsoever,” barked the Republican representative, who is currently in a neck-and-neck race for reelection in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District during the November 6 midterm elections.

US midterms: How widespread is voter suppression?

Since 2010, at least 24 US states have introduced new measures that place tight restrictions on voting protocol. Most of those states are controlled by Republicans.

In the last eight years, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, 13 states introduced or tightened restrictive voter ID laws, 11 have laws making it harder for citizens to register, seven cut back on early voting opportunities and three moved to make it more difficult to return voting rights to people with criminal convictions.

In most cases, the measures disproportionately affected voters of colour, who are generally considered more likely to vote Democrat than Republican.

Thursday, November 1

Trump, Oprah lead surrogate campaigners in 2018 midterms

From President Donald Trump to Oprah Winfrey, top political surrogates are fanning out in key battleground states to appeal to voters during the final days of the 2018 midterm campaigns.

Trump will rally his most loyal supporters in Columbia, Missouri, on Thursday night to boost the fortunes of Republican Senate candidate Josh Hawley in his razor-thin contest against Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill. Vice President Mike Pence barnstormed Georgia for Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, while Ivanka Trump jetted to Nevada for Republican Sen. Dean Heller.

Democrats, meanwhile, enlisted Winfrey’s help to motivate Democrats and crossover voters in Georgia’s race for governor.

Former Vice President Joe Biden was headed to North Dakota to help Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp, who is among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats and who has trailed Republican Kevin Cramer in public polling.

Avenatti launches political ad

Los Angeles attorney Michael Avenatti, who represents adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and is considering a 2020 presidential bid, is launching his first political ad ahead of the midterm elections.

The Democrat tweeted out a clip of the 80-second digital ad for The Fight PAC. It features a litany of people who warn that they are “mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore” and are frustrated by “the lies”, ”the cover-ups” and “the bigotry.”

Avenatti then appears on camera and says, “Our constitution says, ‘We the people, not ‘Me the president,’” he says. “Stand up. Join the fight club. Use your vote as your voice on November 6.”

Waren stumps for Richard Cordray

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren urged college students in Ohio to vote for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray, praising him as “the nerd we need.”

The president has called Cordray a “far-left disciple” of Warren, a potential 2020 presidential contender whom Trump frequently mocks.

Cordray led the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that Warren promoted. He faces state Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Republican, in a tight race for governor.

Ivanka Trump hits campaign trail

Ivanka Trump was hitting the campaign trail for two Republican candidates in the closing days of the midterms.

In Reno, Nevada, the first daughter praised Senator Dean Heller for the role he played in passing the tax overhaul and the doubling of the child tax credit that came with it.

Heller, who faces Democrat Jacky Rosen, said that “This is a close race” but that he’s never seen the Republican Party in Nevada this well-organised in a nonpresidential year.

Ivanka Trump was set to appear Friday with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in West Des Moines, helping a governor with whom she has connected on workforce and education issues.

Trump is a senior White House adviser to her father, but both stops were being made in her personal capacity.

Trump to further restrict asylum seekers with limits, tent cities

Less than a week before the midterm elections, US President Donald Trump said his administration is finalising a plan that would deny asylum to individuals who cross the US border between official ports of entry.

Trump said he would be signing an executive order sometime next week regarding immigration. He did not detail the proposal or how it would be implemented.

Trump has been hitting the campaign trail hard this week as he attempts to energise his Republican base ahead of the midterm elections.

He has sought to stoke fear over a caravan of Central American migrants and refugees making its way to the US-Mexico border. The caravan is still more than 1,100km away and is not expected to make it to the US border for weeks.

Trump draws anger after ‘sickening’ anti-immigrant advert

A campaign advert tweeted by Donald Trump associates a caravan of migrants and asylum seekers heading to the US border to a murderer on death row.

Mexican citizen Luis Bracamontes was convicted of killing two police deputies in 2014. The advert shared by Trump starts with the opening line: “Illegal immigrant, Luis Bracamontes, killed our people!” 

It then weaves between images of the killer and the caravan.

Trump, who has sought to drum up fear of immigrants before the November 6 vote, tweeted the video with the text: “It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country. Vote Republican now!”

Outgoing Republican senator, Jeff Flake, called the video sickening.

This is a sickening ad. Republicans everywhere should denounce it. https://t.co/5sftOt57pI

— Jeff Flake (@JeffFlake) November 1, 2018

Number of young and new voters surges in Texas early voting

Upwards of 332,000 Texans between the ages of 18 and 29 have taken part in early voting, marking a 477-percent increase from the 2014 midterm elections, according to a survey by the data company Target Smart.

With more than 214,000 people voting for the first time, Target Smart’s data also found that the turnout of African American and Latino voters more than doubled since the 2014 midterm.

Donald Trump won Texas, traditionally a Republican stronghold, by nine percentage points during the November 2016 presidential elections, when he defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Obama and Oprah head to Georgia 

Former President Barack Obama and talk show host Oprah Winfrey are heading to Georgia to campaign for Democrat candidates including governor nominee Stacey Abrams.

Republican Vice-President Mike Pence is also in the state to attend rallies with Abrams’ rival Brian Kemp.

Kemp has drawn criticism for an apparent conflict of interest and has so far ignored calls to resign his position as Georgia’s secretary of state, a role in which he oversees an election he himself is standing in.

Multiple polls show a statistical dead heat between Kemp and Abrams, with a low percentage of undecided voters remaining. There’s a possibility of a December runoff, given that Libertarian Ted Metz also is on the ballot. Georgia requires that the winner garner a majority of the votes.

More than 23 million ballots cast already

That’s according to CNN, which has partnered with data company Catalist. The pair found at least 23,391,086 ballots had been cast either by early voting schemes or by mail voting. 

The total size of the US electorate is 157.6 million people, according to the US Census Bureau, so the number of votes already cast a week ahead of the actual election is 15 percent of the electorate.

Wednesday, October 31

Purged Ohio voters allowed to participate

Federal judges ordered Ohio to allow voters who had been purged for not voting over a six-year period to participate in this year’s election.

A divided 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals panel granted an emergency motion sought by voting-rights groups. The ruling overturned in part an October 10 ruling by a federal judge that said voters haven’t been illegally purged from Ohio’s rolls.

Early voting surges in Florida

More than 3.4 million people in Florida have already voted, surpassing the number who voted early or by mail four years ago.

New statistics released Wednesday by the state Division of Elections show registered Republicans still have the edge, casting 1.43 million ballots compared with nearly 1.37 million by registered Democrats.

More than 1.48 million people have voted early, and more than 1.9 million people have voted by mail.

Trump hits election trail with threat of troop surge on border

President Donald Trump took his pre-election anti-immigration rhetoric to new heights on Wednesday with a stunning threat to deploy as many as 15,000 soldiers on the Mexican border – equal to the size of the US contingent in Afghanistan.

Brushing aside accusations that his divisive rhetoric on immigration is stoking “extremism”, Trump made the announcement before kicking off a string of 11 rallies across eight states in the next six days.

Trump has repeatedly – and without evidence – claimed that the US-bound caravan of mostly Central American refugees and migrants consists of “dangerous” people.

“They’re not coming into our country,” he said of the latest group, a few thousand people who are still deep inside Mexico and far from the US border.

Who will be making history on election night?

From the first Muslim congresswomen to the first openly gay governor of a US state, we look at the candidates who are expected to- or could- make history on Tuesday.

Investors brace for split Congress

The most recent polls have the Democrats winning the House of Representatives and the Republicans holding on to the Senate. Those predictions come with a major caveat of course, as polls are frequently proven wrong.

Midterms are not usually a major market event but according to this Reuters report markets are preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump will be dealing with a deadlocked Congress, in which he will not be able to force through any major policy shift.

The result of such instability could be a drop in the valuation of some stocks.

Is Nevada heading for a female-majority legislature?

Patricia Ackerman has gone from establishing a successful business, becoming an award winning actress, working as an undercover FBI agent in Russia, to now possibly becoming a member of Nevada’s state assembly.

The Democrat is one of dozens of women standing in the state’s legislature during the upcoming midterm elections.

Around 40 percent of the state’s current legislature is female. Having a high proportion of female representatives “provides a more collaborative leadership”, according to Congressional scholar, Jordan Tama.

Native American tribe sues North Dakota over Voter ID rules

The Spirit Lake Sioux tribe is suing the state of North Dakota over its voter identification requirements, which they say disenfranchises Native Americans.

To cast a ballot, voters in North Dakota need identification with a verifiable street address, something that’s hard to come by on reservations.

The state maintains that everyone has a street address via the statewide 911 system, but the lawsuit filed by the Native American Rights Fund, the Campaign Legal Center and two law firms argues the system is “incomplete, contradictory and prone to error on reservations.”

The state’s voter ID laws were tightened just a few months after the Democratic incumbent, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, narrowly won her seat in 2012 with the help of the Native American vote.

The Republican-controlled Legislature maintains the changes were not due to Heitkamp’s win.

Tuesday, October 30

Dairy firm pulls support for Steve King over far-right support

Dairy cooperative Land O’Lakes has pulled its support for Republican Congressman Steve King in light of his inflammatory comments on race.

King has regularly drawn criticism and controversy for his views on race and immigration, which many have characterised as far-right.

As midterms marred by violence, experts point finger at Trump

Experts on the far-right say the run-up to this year’s midterms has been one of the most violent in living memory.

In just the last week, 11 Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh were killed by a white supremacist gunman, and in Kentucky, two African Americans were shot dead in a grocery store by a man who spared white customers inside.

Trump took to Twitter to blame “fake news” for “great anger” in the country. 

Trump plans to ‘terminate birthright citizenship’

US President Donald Trump has floated another measure that will target immigrants – ending birthright citizenship.

The Republican leader has long complained of immigrants using so-called anchor babies to establish roots in the US.

In an interview with “Axios on HBO”, Trump said he wanted to revoke the constitutional right to citizenship for babies born in US territory.

The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, introduced in 1868, says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 

Any attempt by Trump to unilaterally end the right would lead to a long legal battle and most legal scholars think that he will not be able to revoke the amendment.

Rather, the announcement seems in line with Trump’s wider pre-election rhetoric against immigration, including his denunciations of a caravan of migrants and asylum seekers heading towards the Mexico-US border. 

Monday, October 22 

Anti-Muslim campaigning in the US is a ‘losing strategy’: report

A report published by the Muslim Advocates rights groups describes a swell of anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric since US President Donald Trump took power.

It documented 80 instances of “clear anti-Muslim rhetoric” employed by political candidates in 2017 and 2018, adding that 64 percent of the candidates held office before or enjoyed a presidential endorsement.

An iguana desperately fleeing a horde of snakes. A bird struggling to find love. A giraffe fending off a lion in a heroic bid for freedom.

When it comes to nature documentaries, it tends to be the individual stories that we remember best. It happened again and again in Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II — an event in the life of one specific creature, combined with the sweetly soothing sound of David Attenborough’s narration, took the internet by storm.

Well, it looks like there’s going to be more where that came from. In the latest BBC David Attenborough documentary series Dynasties, there will be an even greater focus placed on individual stories.

“We for many years have worked on those types of programmes, those sequence-led shows, and the frustration is that you spend a month, three weeks with a creature and you see an amazing insight into a very short window in their lives,” Executive Producer Mike Gunton said at a recent event in London to mark the show’s launch.

“And the frustration is you then have to leave them and you know that there’s so much more of their story that’s begging to be told.”

So how is Dynasties different?

Unlike much of Attenborough’s previous work, an episode of Dynasties doesn’t cut between different creatures. Instead, each hour-long installment focusses on a specific family within a specific species.

Lions, emperor penguins, chimpanzees, tigers, and hyenas are the creatures that will be covered, and an incredible amount of work and time has gone into telling each of their stories.

To make episode one, which we saw at a screening last week, a film crew spent two years following the same group of chimpanzees across Senegal. They walked a total of 2,500km to make the hour-long episode, which tells the story of an alpha male chimp’s desperate struggle to maintain control of his group.

“We had the opportunity to spend this long time with them, to get to know them,” said the episode’s director and producer Rosie Thomas. “And every single one of those chimps in that group had a different personality, and different character, and we got to know those — and by being able to get to know those we were able to read them a lot better, and therefore able to bring each story because we could see how those relationships were forming and changing.”

Why’s it worth watching?

“Chimpanzees” felt more like an episode of Game of Thrones than a nature documentary. It starts with a brooding, Ned Stark-esque close-up of the alpha-male chimp David sitting on his forest throne, before launching into a political tug-of-war bloodthirsty enough to make George RR Martin wince.

It has all the elements that made the likes of Planet Earth II great — the stunning cinematography; the incredible, close-up detail. But it’s far more narrative-based than past shows. The animals end up feeling less like creatures being observed through a lens, and more like characters in a film.

Dynasties begins on BBC One on Sunday 11th Nov. at 8.30pm.

The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul has resulted in the most serious international crisis Saudi Arabia has faced since the 9/11 attacks. This political assassination has been particularly damaging not only because of the dreadful way in which it was carried out, but also because it happened at a time when the idea of a “reforming“ Saudi Arabia was gaining traction around the world.

Far from being invincible, as he appeared to be in the past three years or so, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) is now facing pressure on several fronts and by some accounts fighting for his political survival.

Internationally, the reputation of the crown prince has taken a hammering with many questioning whether he is the right person to lead the promised transformation of the country.

The return to Saudi Arabia this week of Prince Ahmad bin Abdelaziz, the last surviving full brother of King Salman, following six year of self-imposed exile, confirms the seriousness of the situation in the kingdom.

As Prince Ahmed never publicly accepted MBS’s appointment as crown prince, speculation is rife that he has come to replace or challenge him. However, it is much more likely that his return is part of the House of Saud trying to demonstrate unity in the face of the increasingly difficult predicament it faces.

With the latest statement from the Turkish prosecutor that Khashoggi was strangled soon after entering the Saudi consulate, the Saudi royal family rightly fear these damaging accusations dragging on for many more weeks and months, particularly as the US Congress mounts pressure on President Donald Trump to take action. The Saudis have not helped themselves in this situation by admitting to a murder but not informing the Turkish authorities of the whereabouts of Khashoggi’s body. Coming clean on this issue could have brought some closure and ended the swirling speculations.

In the middle of all of this, it is easy to forget the real virtue of King Salman, who himself is a man of renewal and reform. While holding the position of governor of Riyadh (1963-2011), he boosted the business environment of the city, growing and expanding its economy, and undertook massive infrastructural projects. He also played a key role in keeping the royal court together at very critical junctures in the kingdom’s history.

But despite being judicious and reasonable throughout his political career, vesting his ambitious but inexperienced young son with such broad powers was a big mistake which he probably has realised by now.

The combination of overconfidence, overambition and lack of diplomatic experience, which came to characterise MBS and his circle of advisers, is what led to the murder of Khashoggi – whether he was involved in it directly or not.

Assuming King Salman’s health does not deteriorate, he is more than capable of salvaging the situation, but to do so, he will have to balance between the national interests of his kingdom and the political survival of his son. There are ultimately three possible approaches the king could take to resolve the situation. 

First scenario: The status-quo

King Salman could allow MBS to continue business-as-usual and try to convince the public at home and abroad that the Khashoggi affair was a minor issue which will be resolved with the trial of the 18 suspects.

However, the current situation is not like the blockade of Qatar, which MBS tried to downplay as a “very, very, very small issue“. An attempt to dismiss Khashoggi’s assassination would indicate that the crown prince does not grasp the gravity of the situation.

If he insists on such a course, a minority of states like the US and the UK may back him, but the international community would not. Countries like Canada, Germany, and Sweden may even attempt to boycott Saudi Arabia and impose sanctions on Saudi oil, which could deepen rifts and lead to further instability.

Moreover, this scenario would provide further leverage to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has long been locked in a struggle with Saudi Arabia for the leadership of the Muslim world. If MBS attempts to act as if nothing has happened, the Turkish president would continue heaping pressure on him through the media.

This scenario would not lead to a long-term solution and instead if pursued, would almost certainly turn out to be a major strategic miscalculation for Riyadh. Saudi Arabia would end up with a crown prince compromised by Turkey, which would expose the House of Saud as fragile and susceptible to pressure.

Second scenario: Demoting MBS

King Salman could order MBS’s demotion from the position of crown prince on the basis that even if the murder of Khashoggi was the result of a rogue operation, it occurred on his watch. The powers MBS had acquired over the past three years would then have to be redistributed within the ruling family.

This could allow for older and wiser heads to prevail at the top of the state apparatus, which would ensure a return to the traditional ways of doing domestic and foreign politics.

But such a move could also be highly destabilising, as it will not be easy to move older, more qualified and experienced cousins of the crown prince into positions of authority and it could plunge the royal court into another power struggle.

King Salman could also appoint his brother Prince Ahmad as crown prince, but this would put power back in the hands of the older generation, ending hopes for the long-awaited transition of power from the sons of King Abdulaziz (1932-1953), to his grandchildren.

Any of these moves could prove incredibly difficult, if MBS decides to resist – and he has the tools to do so. He is popular with a sizeable part of the Saudi population and has managed to build over the past three years his own deep state, which could sabotage efforts for a transfer of power. 

Scenario three: Limiting MBS’s powers

The most reasonable move for King Salman would be to keep the crown prince in his position, but to curtail his powers. This would teach MBS that there are limits to political ambition within the Saudi court and there is decorum and order that cannot be overlooked.

Even if he is not found responsible for ordering the killing of Khashoggi, MBS should admit some degree of culpability and step aside from the security and defence agencies and focus on domestic social and economic reform. By limiting MBS’s political reach and introducing checks and balances on all fronts, the king could signal to the world that he would oversee the transformation of Saudi Arabia personally and rebuild international confidence in his rule.

It would also help immensely if Riyadh demonstrates transparency on the Khashoggi case and hands in the 18 suspects to the Turkish authorities. If that is deemed unacceptable, Turkish investigators should be invited to Saudi Arabia to take part in the prosecution of the suspects. 

MBS would also benefit from acting as a peacemaker on the international arena. Nothing could help his case more than him ending the war in Yemen, which has pushed its population to the brink of the “world’s worst famine in 100 years“. 

Rather than waiting to be pushed by the US to end the war, he can take the initiative and unilaterally start a peace process. Furthermore, he should immediately resolve outstanding issues with Qatar and Canada and accept that other states have a right to an opinion. 

Clearly, for this all to happen, the urgency and gravity of the situation have to be appreciated by the king directly. However, from what we hear this is not happening, and even his closest advisers, including his foreign minister, reportedly cannot get to him.

It is not in anyone’s interest for Saudi Arabia to suffer instability and be under threat of internal collapse. It is, therefore, of paramount importance that the king and the royal court take urgent action to resolve the situation.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. 

Donald Trump‘s rise to power outraged Alabama resident Suzanne Coleman. When the Republican businessman and former reality television star won the November 2016 presidential elections, Coleman decided to take action.

Like many other African American women in the historically conservative state, Coleman, a lawyer and social worker, arrived at an epiphany: Why not run for office?

With Alabama’s political representatives overwhelmingly white and male, the barriers were plenty. Women hold a mere 15 percent of the seats in the state House of Representatives, and African American women hold around half of those seats.

“For some reason, we don’t feel we should hold positions of power,” Coleman told Al Jazeera. “A lot of that changed. We had the same epiphany: Well, why not?”

Joining the ranks of African American women building momentum increasing their activism across Alabama for the last two years, Coleman became the Democratic candidate for the state’s district 15 in the upcoming midterm elections. 

“We put ourselves out there, it was not an easy thing to do,” she said. “We just want to be looked at as citizens. We want a fair representation.”

Within days of Trump’s victory, nine African American women won judicial seats in Jefferson County, the southern state’s most populous county and home to Birmingham. Still, Coleman expected to be one of the few black women vying for office.

But outraged by Trump and inspired by the newly elected judges, more than 70 women of colour, most of them African American, launched their bids for local and federal office this year in Alabama. That number is far higher than in other states. 

“We didn’t know back then what we were going to be facing,” Coleman said. “But this set the ground for other people that other women can do it as well.”

Nationally, more than 400 African American women ran in the primaries this year, according to an online crowdsourcing database.

Preserving civil rights gains

For many of those still in their respective races, the election is as much about preserving the legacy of the civil rights movement as it is about securing a seat at the table.

And in the age of Trump, Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo movement and a rightward shifting Supreme Court, African American women are also playing a crucial role in getting out to vote.

In December 2017, black women rallied behind Doug Jones, the Democrat who faced off against disgraced Republican candidate Roy Moore, who was accused by several women of sexual assault and harassment.

When Jones won and became the state’s first Democratic senator in 25 years, NBC exit polls found that 98 percent of female African American voters cast their ballot for him.

“Woman are stronger and bolder, now, to shed light on the hurt, this is the effect the Me Too movement had,” said Rhonda Briggins, an Alabama native and cofounder of VoteRunLead, an organisation dedicated to training women to run for office.

“With Brett Kavanaugh, his ruling opinions will set us back, not forward,” she told Al Jazeera. “Women have fought too hard. We are nowhere where we want to be on inequality, but now [this] is setting us back.”

As change touches her home state, Briggins is most excited about the judicial changes, describing the ascendancy of several black women to the judiciary as a “game changer for the country” that could lead to “the reform we need on the judicial side”.

But with a decline in the black voter turnout nationwide, activists have taken it up with themselves to encourage people to vote.

‘Democracy under attack’

Growing frustration has stemmed from a lack of representation, voter suppression and low enthusiasm for candidates, said LaTosha Brown, cofounder of the Black Voters Matter Fund.

“What we [were] hearing is that candidates don’t connect to people in everyday life, they do not engage with voters,” she said of previous years. 

This year’s candidacy pool, however, has changed much of that. “[These] are not your traditional candidates, but southern candidates,” Brown told Al Jazeera.

One of those, she said, was Georgia’s Stacey Abrams, who could become the first black American female governor in the US.

“She has been openly progressive, not staying in the middle,” Brown said, celebrating Abrams’s outreach efforts in often overlooked parts of the state and alliance building with other minority groups.

“She is a black American woman, wearing natural hair. [She’s] not a traditional candidate.” 

Hoping to drum up excitement, the Black Voters Matter Fund has sent its tour bus across the southern states, where activists hear voters’ complaints. Chief among them were fears that voter suppression could compromise the integrity of the elections.

“People are feeling democracy is under attack,” Brown concluded.

“Folks talking that American democracy is just a given, it never has been, and what you’re seeing now is the volatility of democracy. People are rising up to demand more of the system.”

For her part, Alabama state House hopeful Suzanne Coleman says every vote counts on November 6. “A lot of people think their vote doesn’t matter, when it absolutely does matter,” she said.

However the elections turn out, Coleman said, this year has reminded Americans they have the power to shape politics in the country.

“Regardless of how it turns out people have taken notice that this doesn’t have to be the way it is,” she concluded. “That’s what matters the most.”

A real friend is one who will drop everything to hand model your engagement ring when a surprise proposal catches you without a proper manicure.

That’s the situation one Australian woman found herself in when she witnessed her cousin’s boyfriend propose and had to think fast so they could still get the perfect post-proposal shot.

At first glance, the moment looks like any other engagement photo: a happy couple surrounded by balloons and flowers and, of course, a hand showing off the ring. Normal, right?

But what the original photo doesn’t show is the now bride-to-be’s cousin elaborately contorting herself into position so she can hand model the ring instead.  

The image quickly went viral on Twitter, with many applauding the poster, who goes by @goodgaljenjen on Twitter, for her quick thinking.

Others thought that everyone involved should have planned ahead better to avoid the whole situation to begin with.

US President Donald Trump teased his 55 million Twitter followers about his latest action against Iran in the style of a Hollywood movie poster – a picture of him with the words: Sanctions are Coming.

But Trump’s taunt wasn’t a joke, and it’s expected there will be real life consequences for millions of Iranians.

The strict economic and trade penalties come into effect on Monday.

The White House says the aim is to force Iran to abandon what it calls its “destructive” behaviour in the Middle East.

But the move has been condemned by Russia, China and many European allies. International investigators say Tehran is complying with the terms of the 2015 nuclear agreement.

As Trump keeps his promise to punish Iran, could the new tough measures end up hurting the Iranian people the most?

Presenter: Richelle Carey

Guests:

Francois Nicoullaud – Former French ambassador to Iran

Mohammad Eslami – Columnist and political researcher

Drew Liquerman – Republicans Overseas UK

Source: Al Jazeera News

While the NFL has recently relaxed its stance on touchdown celebrations, leading to some terrific antics, the Canadian Football League still found a way to one-up its U.S. counterpart thanks to an Ottawa Redblacks player.

On Friday night, after scoring a touchdown to increase Ottawa’s lead over Toronto, Red Blacks lineman Jon Gott ran for some the stands and grabbed a beer, handed to him by his girlfriend, for one heck of a Stone Cold Steve Austin-esque celebration.

Tremendous. Take that, Lambeau Leap.

In an interview after the game (Ottawa won 24-9), Gott said he’d been thinking about doing something like this for years before adding, as a joke aimed at any league officials who may decide to fine him for the celebration, that it was just water. 

Fans on Twitter were quick to react, showering approval on Gott’s unique jubilation display.

Reports Saturday afternoon were that he would not be fined by the CFL which is a good call.

Of course, if an NFL player ever did this during a game, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s head would explode, Donald Trump would tweet about it, and the country would spend weeks consumed in a flame war about what constitutes “sportsmanship” and appropriate public behavior. 

May the light shine forever on Jon Gott’s fortune and may every beer he has be crisp and cold.