Summary: MbS in Paris, Qatar moves in on Man United, the UAE rolls out the tax welcome mat for Russia, Kais Saied plays poker with the IMF, Ben-Gvir’s unquenchable thirst and atrocities in Sudan.
Summary: the abrupt ending of a bitter fight in the professional golfing world has astonished observers and raised questions about who has come out the winner.
Summary: the abrupt ending of a bitter fight in the professional golfing world has astonished observers and raised questions about who has come out the winner.
Summary: as the MENA water crisis deepens Egypt and Saudi Arabia have embarked on desalination mega-projects that involve the creation of impressively large artificial rivers.
Summary: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is using giga-projects to drive forward his plan to wean the kingdom off its dependency on oil revenues; the results thus far of his Vision2030 project are mixed but if oil prices hold steady MbS may yet see some of his hugely ambitious schemes come to fruition by the end of the decade.
Summary: authoritarian regimes continue a relentless campaign against independent media with little or no criticism from their Western allies.
Summary: with the Saudis and the Houthis continuing to negotiate directly on a peace deal, little thought has been given to the negative implications of such a bilateral agreement for the people of Yemen.
Summary: as the online information war rages on, dissidents inside Salman’s Electronic Army counter its “counter extremism” by leaking information about its activities to the Saudi opposition.
Summary: Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter could call time, for the time being, on Gulf states using the platform to spread disinformation and attack critics and regional foes.
Summary: despite the recent uptick in equity markets, global economic prospects look gloomy enough to justify agreement on a further cut in output when OPEC+ meets on 4 December.
