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The British press has been engaged in feverish speculation about the precise identity and wealth of an Al-Nahyan sheikh ever since tabloid daily The Sun broke the news on 26 May that Newcastle United owner and retailing magnate Mike Ashley had agreed to sell the Premier League football club to Sheikh Khaled Bin Zayed Bin Saqr for £350m. The ‘red-top’ labelled Khaled as a “Dubai-based billionaire… among the most successful entrepreneurs in the Gulf states”. Another tabloid, The Mirror, speculated that, although his personal wealth was unknown, “his family is thought to be worth around £150bn”.

A list of the Chairman and new board members at Qatar Exchange

The US Department of Defence has awarded Lockheed Martin Corporation a $46.2m contract to produce advanced helicopter weapons-targeting systems for the Apache helicopter fleets of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Netherlands.

The Ministry of Works has awarded a $35m contract to US Nasdaq-listed firm Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation. The contract encompasses two phases of a development project in Hidd port; Great Lakes will dredge 5.8mcm to reclaim a 156-acre footprint on which a factory and other facilities will be built. In a 22 July statement, Great Lakes noted it had undertaken many other projects in Bahrain over the past 15 years. Phase one of the project has a target completion date of late autumn 2014, while phase two will be completed by the end of Q1 2015.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have together pledged to contribute $1bn to the United Nation’s $3bn appeal for humanitarian funding for Yemen. Other members of the coalition fighting in the country have committed a further $500m.The contributions were announced by general supervisor of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre and advisor to the Royal Court Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz Al-Rabiah on 22 January. The money appears to be separate to the $2bn recently deposited in the Central Bank of Yemen by Saudi Arabia.

Maysan province provides a pointer to the evolution of politics and security under Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, in the Bush administration’s last months, where huge resources are needed to assist the traumatised, impoverished population in arguably Iraq’s most under-developed and wildest province.

Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said held talks with Narendra Modi on the evening of 11 February at Beit Al-Baraka, during the Indian premier’s brief tour around the region. The two sides agreed to expand co-operation into areas such as space, cybersecurity, energy security, renewable energy and food security. Modi also met Qaboos’s deputy prime minister Fahd Bin Mahmoud Al-Said and deputy prime minister for international relations and co-operation affairs Asaad Bin Tariq Al-Said (widely seen as a potential successor) during his time in Muscat.

Questions have been raised around the apparent suicide of a 28-year-old Syrian in the Central Jail on 12 March. He was serving a two-year sentence for illegal drug use and was being held in solitary confinement at the time. Media reports suggested the inmate had attacked former opposition MP Musallam Al-Barrak in the jail in February. Al-Barrak suffered light injuries and was taken to Farwaniya hospital before being returned to prison. MP Marzouk Al-Khalifa was quoted in the local media as saying the suicide was suspicious; he demanded an investigation.

On 22 April, US secretary of defence James Mattis and his delegation (including advisor Sally Donnelly) were in Doha. Mattis met the emir at Al-Bahr Palace along with defence minister Khalid Bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah. Al-Attiyah had previously met Mattis just under a month ago at the Pentagon. A US government statement said Mattis stressed the importance of the US-Qatari strategic partnership and discussed shared security interests, including the battle against Islamic State.

Emir Sheikh Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah held talks with President Barack Obama in the White House on 4 August

After months of speculation that the ruling Al-Thanis would make a grand gesture to unite a swathe of the Qatari population behind them, heir apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani on 6 September announced Decree 50/2011, ordering salary, social allowance and pension increases for civil service and military employees (current and retired).

The amount of territory controlled by Islamic State (IS or Daesh) shrank by 12% in H1 2016, according to research firm IHS. As of early July, IS controlled roughly 68,300km2 in Iraq and Syria, roughly the size of Ireland. Territorial losses in Iraq this year include an area north-west of Baiji, land between Ramadi and Haditha, and parts of Anbar province. IHS joined analysts predicting that the continued loss of territory is likely to push Daesh towards more mass casualty attacks in Iraq, Syria and further afield, including Europe and Kuwait.

Saudi CPI inflation rose to 3.7% year on year in July, from 3.5% in June, according to the Central Department of Statistics. According to Saudi-based Jadwa Investment, the rise was driven by food and rent prices, with food prices reaching a four-year high. Core inflation – excluding food, rent and housing-related services – maintained its downward trend for the fifth consecutive month, falling to 2% year on year in July from 2.25% in June, in part due to a 12.5% fall in jewellery prices, driven by the price of gold.

On 18 March, Sultan Qaboos received Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak for talks.

Doha’s offer to buy crude from the interim council puts it at the forefront of initiatives to end the Qadhafi regime