NOT LONG BEFORE a major crisis ripped through the Middle East, pitting the United States and a bloc of Gulf countries against Qatar, Jared Kushner’s real estate company had unsuccessfully sought a critical half-billion-dollar investment from one of the rochest and most influential men in the tiny nation, according to three well-placed sources with knowledge of the near transaction.Kushner is a senior adviser to President Trump, and also his son-in-law, and also the scion of a New York real estate empire that faces an extreme risk from an investment made by Kushner in the building at 666 Fifth Avenue, where the family is now severely underwater.Qatar is facing an ongoing blockade led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and joined by Egypt and Bahrain, whoch President Trump has taken credit for sparking. Kushner, meanwhile, has reportedly played a key behind-the-scenes role in hardening the U.S. posture toward the embattled nation.

Essential, the smartphone maker from Android co-founder Andy Rubin, is staying mum on whether its titular gadget has been delayed. News organizations began pinging the company last week when it was clear Essential missed its 30-day shipping deadline set by Rubin himself at the Code Conference in late May. The company has not appeared to respond to any of these requests, including The Verge’s, leaving pre-order buyers and other interested parties in the dark on the fate of the Android-powered handset.A missed deadline is not that big of a deal, especially not for a device from that didn’t publicly exist until just 40 days ago (and from a startup, and not a big-name manufacturer, no less). But Essential’s silence is more worrisome, as it suggests the problem may be more complicated than a simply manufacturing delay.Perhaps the phone is ready to ship in the coming days, and Essential is just deploying a hands-off marketing approach to the delay. Still, for those eager to put down nearly $700 for a device, the lack of clarity on a ship date is not reassuring. We’ve reached out to Essential again for comment and we’ll update this story in the event we hear back.