Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has shaken up the conservative kingdom with head-spinning reforms while quashing any threats to his status since becoming de facto ruler of the world's biggest oil producer five years ago.

The hard-charging heir drew international revulsion after Saudi agents killed and dismembered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, but U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to the kingdom this week looks set to restore his position on the international stage, forcing world leaders to deal with him whether they want to or not. 

Israeli journalist Yoav Limor did not know what to expect when he travelled with a colleague this month to Saudi Arabia, a country long notorious for promoting anti-Israel sentiment in textbooks and in sermons by some imams.   

They were in for "a pleasant surprise", he wrote in a subsequent column for the Israel Hayom newspaper, as Saudi market vendors and taxi drivers mostly greeted them with curiosity rather than disdain.

The widow of Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S.-based writer killed by Saudi government agents four years ago, said Wednesday that she received a commitment that President Joe Biden will bring up the murder when he meets with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

The crown prince, whom Biden will be meeting for the first time in Jeddah on Friday, likely approved of the killing, according to U.S. intelligence.

President Joe Biden, facing his own set of challenges back in Washington, will spend Thursday navigating Israel's chaotic politics as he meets with the country's leaders to bolster cooperation with the United States and other nations.

Biden begins the day by sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who became head of an interim government earlier this month after the previous coalition collapsed. The country is holding its fifth election in less than four years in November.

President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday discussed Iran's rapidly progressing nuclear program, with the Israeli leader vowing afterward that "there will be no nuclear Iran."

The U.S. president, who is set to travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday, said he also stressed to Lapid the importance of Israel becoming "totally integrated" in the region.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has invited relatives of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to Washington, an American official said Wednesday, as Biden arrived in Israel. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken "has invited the family to the United States to be able to sit down and engage with him directly", Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One, which later touched down in Israel shortly past 1200 GMT. 

Several dozen organizations have called on Egypt to end its crackdown on civil society and allow people to exercise freedom of expression ahead of the Egypt-hosted U.N. summit on climate change.

In a joint statement signed by 36 groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, they expressed concern that Egypt will largely keep in place its prohibition on protests during the conference in November.

Israel has said it would increase the number of work permits issued to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and allow thousands more Palestinians to gain legal status ahead of President Joe Biden's visit to the region later this week.

Israel portrays such moves as confidence-building measures aimed at reducing tensions. Critics say they merely entrench its 55-year military rule over millions of Palestinians in the absence of any peace process. The last serious peace talks broke down more than a decade ago.

Nine European countries have said that they have seen "no substantial evidence" to support Israel's allegations that six Palestinian civil society groups are terrorist organizations and would not change their policies on supporting the groups.

The rare joint statement was a major rebuke of Israel, which backlisted the groups as terrorist organizations last October but has provided little evidence to support its allegations. The rights groups denied the allegations and accused Israel of escalating a long-standing crackdown on Palestinian opposition to its decades-long military rule.

Poland and Israel have taken a step toward normalizing diplomatic ties, the Polish president said, as the Israeli ambassador officially presented his credentials in Warsaw.

President Andrzej Duda tweeted that he and Israeli President Issac Herzog have "agreed that it's time to return to normal relations."