The United Arab Emirates has denied Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that he made a secret trip to the Gulf state during the Iran war to meet its president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. But reports that the UAE has carried out its own strikes on Iran has renewed scrutiny of the Abraham Accords.

What are the Abraham Accords?
A series of peace and cooperation agreements normalising relations between Israel and several Arab neighbours. The UAE and Bahrain signed the initial agreements, mediated by the US, on 15 September 2020. Three months later, Sudan and Morocco joined the pact.

The UAE and Bahrain saw the Accords as strategically useful, but Arab public opinion remains strongly pro-Palestinian and opposed to closer relations with Israel. The Gaza war only exacerbated this, and then the Iran war created a sense that Israel was dragging the region into further instability.

Tehran’s “narrative” became that it could target countries that had signed the Accords “at will”, said The Jerusalem Post. This reinforced fears in Saudi Arabia, in particular, that alignment with Israel could make the kingdom a target.

Arab governments face a dilemma: maintaining ties with Israel and its key ally, the US, risks a domestic backlash, but breaking ties could damage their security and economic interests.

How might they be updated?
The original vision of the Abraham Accords – an expanding, economically integrated bloc across the Middle East – has become a significantly weaker prospect. Future agreements could involve cooler normalisation, selective security cooperation, and a slower expansion.

The rise of China has also encouraged players to consider other options. Expanding and strengthening the Accords creates a “network rooted in shared security interests and American sponsorship”,  said US conservative think tank the Hudson Institute. But Beijing has “spent the better part of two decades cultivating Middle Eastern influence”, with infrastructure finance, arms sales and “diplomatic mediation”.

What would an update look like?
The Accords have “demonstrated resilience”, despite the “turbulence” of the recent years, including “growing criticism of Israel”, said Roy Binyamini, a former National Security Council official, on Ynet.

The US and its Accords partners could offer a “vision for regional stability, economic growth, inter-faith tolerance and the containment of extremist influences”. Meanwhile, Israel could “leverage its experience” to help regional partners in “strengthening civilian defence systems”.

The world is about to learn “how much climate disruption we can manage”, said The New York Times.

Climate scientists are predicting this summer to be “potentially the biggest El Niño event since the 1870s”, said The Washington Post. In 1877, this naturally occurring climate pattern led to a famine that killed millions of people, followed by epidemics of malaria, dysentery, smallpox and cholera.

‘Lasting’ weather changes
El Niños are natural phenomena: weather patterns that occur every few years, inflicting drought, flooding and other climate-related destruction. The next El Niño may not “produce nearly as much human suffering as the one of 150 years ago”, said The New York Times. But it is “almost certain” to make 2027 the “hottest year on record by some margin”.

It might “lock Earth into a hotter climate” with “lasting changes in heat, rainfall and drought patterns”, said Inside Climate News. Researchers believe it “could permanently push” the planet past the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming milestone that’s long been seen as the threshold for “potentially irreversible climate impacts” that can affect food production, health and the economy.

“Hotter, drier weather across Asia” could damage crops even as farmers on the continent “grapple with fertiliser shortages” caused by the Iran war, said Reuters. El Niño could also “dump more rain” ​on Europe and the US, affecting harvests. The uncertainty may prompt farmers to hedge their planting plans. “Why spread expensive fertiliser on a crop that is going to be poor anyway?” said Vitor Pistóia at Australia’s Rabobank.

More fires and floods
“A lot has changed” since the 1877 El Niño, said The Washington Post. Advances in climate monitoring mean the world is “much more prepared to deal with the consequences” of massive weather shifts.

But when the temperature “tilts sharply up”, as happens during an El Niño, we get “lots more” fires and floods, said environmental activist Bill McKibben on his The Crucial Years Substack. The coming cycle may offer “final proof that global warming is actually accelerating sickeningly”. We should “prepare for bedlam”.

People walk past a fire in Havana last night, after protests over power blackouts turned violent. Cuba is suffering its worst fuel shortages in decades, as its power grid crumbles and the Trump administration’s oil blockade bites.

Yamil Lage / AFP / Getty Images

Dumfries and Galloway: Cumnock Knowes, Carsphairn
An impressive modern house offering flexible accommodation with far-reaching views. Set in approx. 2.5 acres, the property backs onto the Water of Deugh, which is known for its salmon and trout fishing. 4 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 5 receps, garden, garage. OIEO £550,000; Galbraith.

Cornwall: Danescombe Valley House, Calstock
An eye-catching Grade II Victorian villa with direct access to the River Tamar. Originally built in the 1850s as a private fishing lodge. 5 beds, 4 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, garden, mooring and landing stage, parking. £1.5 million; The Coastal House.

Somerset: Longaller Mill, Bishops Hull
Elegant Grade II former mill on the River Tone, known for its diverse coarse fishing, especially for chub, dace and roach. 4 beds, 3 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 5 receps, 1-bed self-contained cottage, outbuildings, garden, parking. £1.2 million; Savills.

Oxfordshire: Greenhaye, Preston Crowmarsh
An exceptional Edwardian home on the banks of the River Thames, boasting grand entertaining spaces. 6 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 5 receps, stables, tennis court, garden, parking. £2.495 million; Savills.

Surrey: Abbots Cottage, Tilford
A delightful country cottage, set in approx. 2.4 acres of pastureland and woodland, bordered by a stream. Close to Rushmore Lake fisheries, which offer carp and coarse angling. 4 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, shepherd’s hut, stables, outbuilding, garden, parking. £1.55 million; Strutt & Parker.

While Labour implodes, Farage is battling a scandal that could cost him everything
James Ball in The i Paper
Westminster eyes may be “focused on” Keir Starmer’s premiership, writes James Ball, but, “bubbling underneath”, is the revelation that Nigel Farage accepted £5 million from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire, and didn’t declare it. He faces a “formal investigation by the parliamentary standards watchdog”, which could lead to a “recall petition” in his seat, pushing him into the “fight of his political life”. He “might soon find himself in just as much political trouble as Starmer is in now”.

What the Two Fat Ladies taught us about Britain
Madeline Grant in The Spectator
“At the height” of the 1990s “panic about fat”, the BBC’s “Two Fat Ladies” cheerfully cooked “with butter, cream, dripping and lard”, writes Madeline Grant. “They were the opposite” of today’s “cult of wellness” that has “grown men obsessing about their ‘biome’”; if only they were still alive to “share their thoughts about the Zoe app”. Their rebellion against “scolding” progressives was the “last gasp of a country” with a “sense of humour and a coherent sense of self”.

No one should get a free pass on antisemitism – so why does the right?
George Monbiot in The Guardian
“Antisemitism must be stamped out,” writes George Monbiot. “It is indeed a problem on the left”, but where’s “the equally urgent concern” about the right? Where’s “the storm of protest” at right-wing newspapers publishing cartoons of Zack Polanski “with a hooked nose”? What about Nigel Farage’s alleged “antisemitic tendencies”? It’s starting to look as if “the media might be campaigning against antisemitism not because they care about Jews but because it’s a highly effective means” of “stopping the left”.