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A special ministerial court has given former interior and defence minister Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled a 14-year jail term, a $65m fine and ordered him to repay $32m embezzled from the ministries he headed up between 2022 and 2024.

A lower court’s verdict has been endorsed by the Court of Cassation, sentencing Sheikh Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah to death for the murder of Abdelaziz Al-Zaatari.

Almost 30,000 Kuwaitis have lost their citizenship over the past five months, including more than 10,000 people in the opening weeks of January. The policy is being run by interior minister Sheikh Fahad Yusuf Saud Al-Sabah, with an opaque decision-making process that appears designed to stifle critics as much as address alleged problems around fraud.

A Dubai businessman favoured by Donald Trump, Hussein Sajwani – profiled by GSN below – in early January said he would invest $20bn in a network of US data centres. His group has also signed a deal to enable $1bn of assets to be traded on a blockchain.

King Charles III’s younger brother is stepping up to promote the United Kingdom’s interests in the region, visiting Manama and Kuwait City in mid-December, after welcoming the Qatari emir to London earlier in the month.

Ruling family member Sheikh Saoud Salem Al-Sabah has been appointed managing director of Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund, after Ghanem Al-Ghunaiman was unexpectedly replaced.

The days of Ankara focusing its attention in the GCC solely on Qatar are now firmly in the past, as recent agreements point to Türkiye steadily growing its military and commercial links with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, as well as with Doha.

Sheikh Mubarak Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was appointed by emiri decree on 13 November, some three months after the previous post-holder, Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Salem Al-Sabeh, died. He is only the second person to take charge of the force since it was established in the 1960s.

After taking office in December 2023, Sheikh Mishaal Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah promised significant reforms to shake up Kuwait’s political and economic systems, but the emir has made little apparent impact during his first year in power, other than suspending parliament and clamping down on critics.

In a move that points to continued turbulence in the executive, Kuwait Emir Sheikh Mishaal Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah appointed Tareq Suleiman Ahmed Al-Roumi as oil minister in late October. Sheikh Mishaal also appointed Jalal Sayed Abdulmuhsin Al-Tabtabei as education minister, replacing Adel Mohammed Al-Adwani.

Emir Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmed’s fourth son Sheikh Jaber has married another Al-Sabah, Sheikha Noor Bint Talal Al-Sabah.

The Brics summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin allowed the first meeting between Iran and the UAE since they became full members of the emerging economies’ bloc in January. The conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon were high up the agenda as the Russian city of Kazan hosted an event that allowed emerging economies to show off their potential as an eventual alternative to western economic dominance – and the dollar economy – but above all it allowed Putin to bask in the glow of peer group recognition, ahead of the US election, while his war in Ukraine rages on.

The Kuwaiti and Malaysian governments have agreed to start formal negotiations on a deal to sell the Kuwait Air Force’s fleet of 32 F/A-18 C/D Hornet jets, which are being replaced by more modern aircraft. Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad told Malaysian defence minister Khaled Nordin he saw “no obstacles” to a deal.

With parliament sidelined for up to four years, the government could push through some long-delayed reforms to the economy, but there has been little sign of meaningful policy initiatives by Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad’s team. Now the IMF is pushing the government to use its ‘window of opportunity’ to cut spending, relax foreign ownership rules and reduce the public sector workforce.

A Kuwait Air Force F-18 fighter jet crashed during a training mission on 9 October, with Flight Lieutenant Mohammed Mahmoud Abdulrasoul dying in the incident. It is the first fatal crash suffered by the force in more than two decades.