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Prince Abdullah, son of former deputy defence minister Prince Khalid Bin Sultan, has been in Bermuda, where he met Premier Michael Dunkley. They held talks at the Elbow Beach hotel, which has been owned by Prince Khalid since the early 1990s. Abdullah is a low-profile son of Prince Khalid, who was removed from his ministerial position in April 2013. In early September, Prince Khalid Bin Alwaleed Bin Talal visited Malta, where he had a meeting with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

King Salman Bin Abdelaziz held talks with President Mahmoud Abbas of Palestine on 21 December, in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and amid ongoing allegations of Saudi meddling in the domestic politics of a number of Levant countries. The king closed out the year by hosting Kuwait’s recently appointed first deputy prime minister and defence minister Sheikh Nassir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah at Al-Auja Palace on 31 December.

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of 32-year-old Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed Al-Maktoum, daughter of the federal Vice President, prime minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR). On 4 March, the American-registered yacht Nostromo was reportedly boarded by an armed group some 50 miles off the coast of India. On board were Sheikha Latifa, US-French duel national Hervé Jaubert, Finnish citizen Tiina Jauhiainen and three others.

King Salman returned to the Kingdom in mid-August after several weeks in Morocco. Soon after his arrival he ordered a month’s extra pay for Saudi military and security personnel actively involved in operations in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia National Guard commander Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah gave a late February interview to Okaz/Saudi Gazette in which he described his father’s daily routine, which includes waking for the Fajr prayer, reading the Quran, sleeping again and then performing the Dhuhr prayer.

Qatar Investment and Projects Development Holding Company (Qipco) and its chief executive Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani have brought an action for defamation against the unnamed owner of US-based website The Muslim Issue. The complaint, filed in the Wisconsin district court on 17 July, describes the website as a “hate site against Muslims throughout the world”. The Muslim Issue claims it has more than 26m readers.

A report on farsnews.com says that newly installed Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani is due to participate in the 4 August inauguration ceremony of Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani. Asharq Al-Awsat said on 29 July that representatives of 40 countries were due to attend the ceremony. Rouhani himself has tweeted (@HassanRouhani) that this is the first time foreign officials have been invited to the ceremony, and that the emir of Qatar will “certainly” attend, alongside ten presidents, three prime ministers, five heads of parliament (including Oman’s), five vice-presidents and ten foreign ministers.

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa inaugurated a $50m National Theatre on 13 November, an elegant glass structure with a golden roof that seats 1,001 people and symbolises the union of Bahrain and sea. The theatre, commissioned long before the political crisis, was designed by France’s AS Architecture-Studio, also responsible for the Muscat Cultural Centre and Doha’s Pier Exhibition Centre.

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) received Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed at Al-Shai Palace on 20 November. The official statement said their discussions ranged across economic development initiatives and co-operation in fighting terrorism and enhancing security and stability in Somalia.

Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani travelled to the Rwandan capital Kigali on 9 December, just as his fellow rulers in the Gulf Co-operation Council were preparing to head to the Saudi capital Riyadh for the GCC summit. The emir was back in Africa to hand out the fourth batch of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Awards at the Kigali Convention Centre. While in Rwanda, Tamim held talks with President Paul Kagame, an increasingly close ally.

Mohammed Bin Nayef Bin Abdelaziz Al-Saud (MBN) is a nephew of King Salman and, like him, from the powerful Sudairi bloc that has re-emerged as the dominant branch of the Al-Saud in the months since King Abdullah’s death. Born in 1959, he has long been thought of as a contender for the throne, and has excellent dynastic credentials, having been born to two members of the Al-Saud, the late crown prince Nayef and Jawahar Bint Abdelaziz Bin Musaid Bin Jiluwi.

Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani was the most senior Gulf royal to attend the inauguration ceremony for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s second term in office – no surprise given the importance that Doha places on its alliance with Turkey in the face of hostility from other Gulf states.

The once-high flying but later disgraced art collector Sheikh Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Thani is being sued in the UK High Court by a group of dealers who say he has dishonoured a pledge to pay $19.7m for a collection of coins sold at auction in January in New York.

Prince Khalid Bin Salman Bin Abdelaziz in late November married a daughter of Prince Mohammed Bin Mishaal Bin Abdelaziz. Crown Prince Salman attended his son’s wedding with other senior royals, including former deputy defence and aviation minister Prince Abdelrahman Bin Abdelaziz.

In an era when Gulf money has poured into English Premier League football clubs, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s business empire has decided to invest in London Welsh, a British rugby union club.