Last week, Al Majalla covered the major news of Saudi Arabia being declared a major non-NATO ally of the United States during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington. Abdullah F. AlRebh highlights the monumental deals clinched between Riyadh and Washington, while noting that larger issues of normalisation with Israel and a binding security treaty require more time. For his part, Omar Harkous penned a piece titled From oil to AI: a century of Saudi-US partnership. In it, he says, “The Saudi-US alliance is entering a new phase—one characterised by maturity, equilibrium, and a shared vision attuned to a world increasingly shaped by technology.”

Switching gears but staying on the topic of technology, Marco Mossad writes on Elon Musk, Grokipedia, and the battle for truth. He says that while the new AI-driven encyclopaedia promises freedom from human bias, it exposes a deeper struggle over who controls knowledge in the digital age. For his part, Abdulfattah Khattab pens a piece titled The ghost of the dotcom bubble haunts artificial intelligence. In it, he says,“Amid warnings about the understated depreciation of assets in the AI sector, there are lessons to be learnt from the last time the tech industry experienced overinflated values.”

Meanwhile, Ibrahim Hamidi interviews Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani. In Part 1, al-Shaibani explains how Syria untangled its Russian knot, tracing the events leading to the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and charting Ahmed al-Sharaa’s journey from a wanted man to Syrian president. In Part 2, he emphasises that Syria’s policy of having good relations with neighbours does not equate to acquiescence over land grabs and says there will be no deal with Israel without it pulling back its troops from Syrian territory. And Syria’s Minister of Information, Hamza Al Mustafa, opines about the bright future ahead for his country despite the challenges. In his piece, he says, “Syria is rising from the ashes. It is rebuilding internally, seeking to overcome past enmity by being open and inclusive while also consolidating national unity as a key priority.”

For his part, Michael Harari lays out three options for Israel on the issue of Hezbollah disarmament. In his piece, he advises that while Israel seems to prefer military pressure, it would be better placed to find more creative ways to achieve its goal. Meanwhile, Thuraya Shahin profiles Michel Issa: Trump’s trusted ambassador takes on Lebanon’s hardest file. In her piece, she writes, "The first US ambassador to Lebanon with Lebanese roots has set his sights on Hezbollah’s disarmament and restoring state authority."

Onto Ukraine, and Con Coughlin writes on a new Ukraine peace deal that seemingly materialised out of the blue. “Kyiv looks to be under renewed pressure amid reports that Russia and the US have been secretly drafting a 28-point peace plan to put an end to the conflict,” he says. And while G20 leaders gathered in Johannesburg, with Trump refusing to attend, Shirley Ze Yu pens a piece titled Trump’s bipolar vision misreads a multipolar world. In it, she says, “Suggestions of a 'G2' risks overestimating America and China's ability to reorganise the world.”

In Culture, Maram Abou Hawach reviews the film It Was Just An Accident, which grapples with the morality of revenge. “Acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi tells the story of a group of ordinary people, all tortured by the same man, grappling with whether or not to take justice into their own hands,“ she writes. And last but not least, Farouk Yousif reviews a curatorial series currently on display at London’s Barbican Centre, which features a metaphysical dialogue between Palestinian artist Mona Hatoum and the late Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, titled Encounters, showing how two different artists, generations apart, can grapple with the same existential questions.