The Moody's rating agency has changed its outlook on Qatar's credit rating from stable to negative due to political anxiety ahead of the meeting between the Arab states who initiated a diplomatic and economic blockade of the emirate.

A quartet of Arab countries suspended their diplomatic relations with Qatar last month, and are due to meet in Cairo on Wednesday after Doha rejected a list of 13 demands, missing an extended deadline.

In June, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing terrorist groups.

Some people seem like they never learn how to play the game. At the top of the list in the European Union these days is Hungary and her stubborn Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán. He just doesn't seem to get it. He doesn't understand that it's not "European" to defend the sovereign rights of your citizens and your nation. No matter how the EU faceless technocrats hovering around the dubious Luxembourg EU President Jean-Claude Juncker try to educate Orbán and his government, he doesn't seem to get it.

The past year has been a tough one for the Brussels' EU political correctness Supremos. First Mr Orbán insisted on going through with a national referendum. How anti-European! Letting citizens vote on issues affecting their lives in their own countries! What a dangerous idea if that ever spreads. Next thing you know women might demand genuine equality and to be taken seriously as human beings. Horror!

Last October 2016 Viktor Orbán's government organized a referendum vote on whether to let the faceless, unelected EU Commission of President Jean-Claude Juncker (or his successors) dictate the number of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East Hungary would be forced to welcome, including to pay for and more. The Hungarian voters voted with over a whopping 98% in agreement with their Prime Minister that Brussels should have no such right.

Fifty-two US Congressmen have signed a letter calling on the Trump Administration to allow Americans born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their birthplace on official documents.

The letter, led by Republican Reps. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Bill Johnson of Ohio, was sent last week to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

It asks the government to reverse the longstanding policy, challenged in court cases up to the Supreme Court, of requiring Americans born in Jerusalem to list the city with no country as their place of birth on their passport and other official documents.

In 2002, Congress passed a law requiring the State Department to record 'Israel' as a Jerusalem-born citizen's birthplace on his/her passport. The State Department, under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama refused to comply with this congressional mandate.

Russian energy major Gazprom has signed an agreement with Hungary to deliver gas via the Turkish Stream pipeline, the MTI news agency reported, citing Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

He said the Turkish Stream branch to Hungary would be completed by the end of 2019. Budapest sees Turkish Stream gas supplies as the best option because other routes, across Romania and Croatia, are at an early stage, the foreign minister added.

"This will improve Hungary's energy security a great deal, so it is in our strategic interest for this cooperation to start," said Szijjarto.

On March 25, 2011, a Qatar Air Force Mirage 2000-5, took off from Souda Air Base, in Crete, to help enforce a no-fly zone protecting rebels being attacked by Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi. Qatar was the first Persian Gulf nation to help the U.S. in the conflict.

Qatari operations were more than symbolic. The Qatari military trained rebel units, shipped them weapons, accompanied their fighting units into battle, served as a link between rebel commanders and NATO, tutored their military commanders, integrated disparate rebel units into a unified force and led them in the final assault on Qaddafi's compound in Tripoli.

"We never had to hold their hand," a retired senior U.S. military officer says. "They knew what they were doing." Put simply, while the U.S. was leading from behind in Libya, the Qataris were walking point.

The Qatar intervention has not been forgotten at the Pentagon and is one of the reasons why Defense Secretary James Mattis has worked so diligently to patch up the falling out between them and the coalition of Saudi-led countries (including the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt), that have isolated and blockaded the nation. In fact, Mattis was stunned by the Saudi move.

"His first reaction was shock, but his second was disbelief," a senior military officer says. "He thought the Saudis had picked an unnecessary fight, and just when the administration thought they'd gotten everyone in the Gulf on the same page in forming a common front against Iran."

Qatar says some of the demands made by its neighbors are simply "unrealistic" as the deadline for compliance to the ultimatum given to Doha was extended until midnight Tuesday. The initial deadline was Sunday with Qatar's foreign minister saying it's working toward a "constructive" solution.

In June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of sponsoring terrorism. They later presented Doha with a list of 13 demands, including shutting down its news channel Al Jazeera, ending support for the Muslim Brotherhood, downgrading ties with Iran and closing a military base housing Turkish troops on its territory.

The deadline to comply with the demands ended on Sunday, but the Gulf States and Egypt granted Qatar another 48 hours before the group would consider imposing further sanctions.

Speaking at a news conference in Doha Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said Saudi Arabia and its allies were asking too much.

"What Qatar has given in goodwill and good initiative for a constructive solution, based on dialogue, we believe should be sufficient [to show] we have carried out our duties from our side," said Al-Thani, adding, that some of the demands by the other Gulf states and Egypt are "unrealistic and is not actionable".

"The state of Qatar has adopted a very constructive attitude since the beginning of the crisis. We are trying to act mature and discuss the matter."

Could the Saudis pressure Washington to axe Qatar's access to SWIFT?

There is nothing worse than a called bluff. One of these days Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will learn this. But, so far he hasn't. Today was the initial deadline for Qatar to comply with his insane list of demands.

A list no one in their right mind thought Qatar would comply with. The question was never Qatar's response, it was bin Salman's and Saudi Arabia's reaction once Qatar said no. And, we have the answer. Qatar gets another two days to think about how they can more creatively say no again. At that point, they might actually face financial wrath from the Saudis.

The problem with that is the Saudis would have to have the backing of the U.S. at the most fundamental level. It would have to issue sanctions against Qatar that carry expulsion from SWIFT for these threats to mean anything in the long run. Oh, the short-term pain of SWIFT expulsion for Qatar would be horrendous. But, in the long-run, it would free the country from that future Sword of Damocles. Just like Iran is now.

And, given that Qatar is being pushed quickly into the arms of Iran, who know a thing or two about surviving such a sanctions regime, that threat doesn't carry the same weight it once did on the world stage.

The United States has ended the in-cabin ban on laptops and other large electronics on US-bound flights from Dubai and Istanbul, Emirates and Turkish Airlines announced on Wednesday. The decision comes three days after restrictions were reversed at Etihad Airways' hub Abu Dhabi International Airport.

"Dear Passengers, welcome on board to our US-bound flight. Please fasten your seat belts and enjoy your own electronic devices," the Turkish airline said on Twitter.

The state-run Anadolu news agency said on Tuesday Turkey's Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan had said the ban on devices on flights from Istanbul to the United States would be lifted on Wednesday.

Chief Executive Bilal Eksi also tweeted that the company expected a similar ban on flights to Britain would soon be cancelled, too.

The ban was imposed by Donald Trump's administration in March at ten airports in eight countries - Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey. The US authorities feared that bombs could be hidden in electronic devices.

The UK later introduced a similar ban, which does not apply to flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

Saudi Arabia Airlines (Saudia) expects the US authorities will give the green light to flights from Jeddah and Riyadh by July 19, state news agency SPA reported on Tuesday.

Germany is likely to see more terrorist attacks conducted by Islamist jihadists, the country's domestic intelligence chief has said while presenting an annual report which analyses threats to the state from all forms of extremism.

"We must expect further attacks by individuals or terror groups," the Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (BfV) chief, Hans-Georg Maassen said Tuesday. "Islamist terrorism is the biggest challenge facing the BfV and we see it as one of the biggest threats facing the internal security of Germany."

The statement followed the agency publishing its annual report on constitution protection and threats to the state. It said some 24,400 Islamists remain in Germany, including around 10,000 Salafists, an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam, followers of which have been prone to terrorism.

The first date is a decisive one, as we learned in college, while courting Nancy or Alice. The coming first date of two Presidents, the two superheroes of our generation is likely to set the trend for coming years. How will it go? What will they say? The consequences can be joyous - or fatal.

The two leaders are the best these two great countries have produced for many years. Russia has had no leader equal in stature and public support to Putin since Stalin - in a recent poll for the greatest personality in history, a plurality of Russians placed Putin and Stalin at the top, preceding Pushkin, the Russian poet who occupies a place safeguarded for Shakespeare in English hearts. Trump, with all his shortcomings, is a great and good leader in the beginning of his statesman's career, head and shoulders above his recent predecessors since Richard Nixon.

They are very, very different. Their biggest difference lies in experience. Putin has led his country for (more or less) 17 years; he learned the tricks and skills of the power game the hard way, from being a frontman for the seven Jewish bankers who privatized Russia in Nineties, to a fully independent autocrat comparable to the penultimate Russian Tsar Alexander III, or to Napoleon III. He is a wise ruler, in the Confucian way, forever hiding his steel will under a velvet glove; always modest, moderate, temperate, not given to a momentary abandon of passion. He is in full control of himself, and the Sages tell us this is the most difficult and sublime subject of control. He is also a responsible and reliable statesman; his word is as good as his bond: he kept the ridiculous promises he gave to Yeltsin's family. He is also very popular with his subjects.