Iraq and Saudi Arabia are negotiating a new alliance that would give Riyadh a leading role in rebuilding Iraq’s war-torn towns and cities, while bolstering Baghdad’s credentials across the region.

Meetings between senior officials on both sides over the past six months have focused on shepherding Iraq away from its powerful neighbour and Saudi Arabia’s long-time rival, Iran, whose influence over Iraqi affairs has grown sharply since the 2003 ousting of Saddam Hussein. Iraq and Saudi Arabia have long been considered opponents in the region, but a visit by the Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to Riyadh last week and a follow-up trip to the UAE further thawed relations which had already been much improved by high-profile visits between the two countries.

The arrival in the Saudi capital of Sadr – a protagonist in the sectarian war that ravaged Iraq from 2004-08 and who has enduring ties to Iran – highlights a new level of engagement which could see Riyadh play a significant role in the reconstruction of the predominantly Sunni cities of Mosul, Fallujah, Ramadi and Tikrit.(theguardian)…[+]

Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Heyer, the 32-year-old paralegal killed when a car rammed into counter-protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, last Saturday, has said she has “no interest” in speaking with Donald Trump.

“I understand that President Trump wants to speak with me, I’ve heard from his press secretary and a few other people, and it’s not that I’m trying to be callous, it’s that I have no interest in speaking to politicians just to hear them say, ‘I’m sorry,’” Bro told ABC’s Good Morning America. “If I felt like that’s all they wanted to say, that would be different, but I feel like I’m wanted to be used for political agendas and I’m resistant to that.”

Bro had initially thanked Trump for his “words of comfort”, but changed her mind following the memorial service for Heyer on Wednesday, after Bro said she saw “an actual clip of him at a press conference equating the protesters … with the KKK and the white supremacists.” The ABC host, Robin Roberts, asked Bro whether she had spoken directly with the president.(theguardian)…[+]

An urgent search is underway for a child with dual British nationality who is believed to be among the missing after the terror attacks in Spain, the UK prime minister has said. Theresa May spoke after a British man living in Australia appealed for information about his seven-year-old grandson, Julian Alessandro Cadman, who became separated from his mother, Jom, during the chaos.

“Julian is seven years old and was out with Jom when they were separated, due to the recent terrorist activity. Please share if you have family or friends in Barcelona,” said Tony Cadman, whose Facebook profile says he lives in Australia and is originally from Dorset. May told Sky News that Britain was “urgently looking into reports of a child believed missing, who is a British dual national.” She did not name him. It has been reported that the child and his mother previously lived in Kent, and Tony Cadman posted a picture of Julian wearing a uniform from a British nursery school.(theguardian)…[+]