Boris Johnson’s Saudi bromance
LONDON — One is a former journalist leading a liberal democracy. The other is an authoritarian crown prince of an oppressive state that executes people and has zero tolerance for freedom of speech....
View ArticleBiden to travel to Middle East in July, White House says
President Joe Biden will travel to the Middle East next month, making stops in Israel, the West Bank and then Saudi Arabia, where he’ll seek to rebuild relations after vowing to make the kingdom a...
View ArticleBiden’s Saudi trip not out of desperation, US official says
National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said it makes sense for President Joe Biden to travel to Saudi Arabia despite that nation’s much-criticized human rights record. Speaking on “Fox News...
View ArticleChina stands in the way of Biden’s Saudi outreach
President Joe Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia on Friday to try to repair a rocky relationship that threatens to create a power vacuum. Biden isn’t hiding his concerns about the threat China poses....
View ArticleBiden’s Middle East expedition: Reputation dinged, interests secured?
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — U.S. President Joe Biden’s four-day Middle East trip was a stark demonstration of how, on the global stage, the importance of values at times gets downplayed in the cold pursuit...
View ArticleMacron to meet Saudi crown prince MBS amid energy crisis
PARIS — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday. The French president and the Saudi prince will meet for a working dinner at the Elysée...
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Macron hosts Saudi Arabia’s ‘bone saw’ prince
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has decided to host the ruler of oil rich Saudi Arabia for dinner in Paris, days after lecturing African leaders for failing to stand up to tyranny in the...
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Blood for oil: Meet the world’s worst leaders selling dirty energy to Europe
Europe is courting some extremely dodgy regimes for oil and gas. Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine means EU leaders are spending the summer cozying up to presidents, and the odd crown...
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When to fist bump an autocrat
James Snell is a widely published writer and a senior advisor on Special Initiatives at the New Lines Institute. Just last month, there stood United States President Joe Biden, fist bumping Saudi...
View ArticleXi Jinping’s Saudi trip seeks to exploit Riyadh-Washington tensions
Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon end more than two years of self-imposed in-person diplomatic isolation as he travels to Saudi Arabia to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — a month...
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Greece faces backlash over joint World Cup bid with Saudi Arabia, Egypt
Greece faces a growing backlash over a planned joint bid with Saudi Arabia and Egypt to host the 2030 football World Cup. The mooted bid would see Greece team up with two countries that have been...
View ArticleHow Gulf tensions drove Qatar to seek friends in Brussels
They’re dazzlingly rich, and they expect to be in charge for a long, long time. The monarchs leading Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia might seem from the outside like a trio of...
View ArticlePolish MEP hits back at report on payments from UAE and allegedly undeclared...
Polish MEP Radoslaw Sikorski sent an open letter to Dutch newspaper NRC blasting a report it ran about regular payments the lawmaker received from the United Arab Emirates for acting as an adviser and...
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Stay silent on human rights to strike deals, Gulf states tell UK
LONDON — Shut up about human rights if you want to make deals in the Middle East. That’s the warning from a gulf state minister ahead of trade negotiations due to begin Monday, as Britain seeks to...
View ArticleSaudi Arabia’s MBS to meet Macron in Paris
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday, an Elysée official said Wednesday, without providing details on the goal of the visit. In...
View ArticleMacron hosts Saudi crown prince for Ukraine, Mideast talks
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks focused on the Middle East and the war in Ukraine on Friday. Macron will press bin Salman,...
View ArticleGermany loosens arms export restrictions to Saudi Arabia — but not on fighter...
VILNIUS — The German government agreed Wednesday to soften its position on arms exports to Saudi Arabia while continuing to block deliveries of Eurofighter jets — a decision that risks upsetting the...
View ArticleSaudi Arabia’s MBS to visit UK: report
LONDON — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — known as MBS — is set to visit the U.K. later this year, it was reported Friday. According to the Financial Times, the trip is set to take place...
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From pariah to peacemaker: Saudi Arabia’s bid to become Ukraine war middleman
Saudi Arabia was dismissed globally as a human rights pariah following the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. But this weekend, the country will burnish its credentials as a...
View ArticleSanna Marin joins Tony Blair Institute
Former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin is joining the Tony Blair Institute as a strategic counselor. Marin announced the news during a press conference Thursday, saying she was excited about the...
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Who are the G20’s bad guys now?
NEW DELHI — When world leaders gather at the G20 summit on Saturday morning, the smiles may be more awkward than usual. While China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin won’t be there, a B-list...
View ArticleBiden shakes hands with Saudi’s bin Salman at G20 summit
Joe Biden publicly shook hands with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman at the G20 summit Saturday — after the president sustained a backlash last year for fist-bumping the crown prince, who U.S....
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How Europe became the Wild West of spyware
BRUSSELS — The spyware deployed against Roberta Metsola, president of the European Parliament, was made and marketed by a European company. A link sent to Metsola as a reply to a post on X was...
View Article5 times Biden’s off-the-cuff remarks have landed him in diplomatic hot water
President Joe Biden is known for his loose, off-the-cuff comments. Many have been inconsequential gaffes — an awkward turn of phrase or a moment of embarrassing honesty about his personal life. Then...
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The Qatargate Files: Hundreds of leaked documents reveal scale of EU...
The Qatargate Files:Hundreds of leaked documents reveal scale of EU corruption scandal Evidence from the European Parliament’s graft investigation provides a record of more than 300 alleged attempts...
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The ‘dirty dozen’ of Davos
It’s that time of year again: Leaders, business titans, philanthropists and celebs descend on the Swiss ski town of Davos to discuss the fate of the world and do deals/shots with the global elite at...
View ArticleWhat a Kamala Harris foreign policy could look like
If elected president in November, Vice President Kamala Harris would enter office with a foreign policy record defined by her tenure as a senator during Donald Trump’s presidency, and her time as the...
View ArticleHere are the world leaders Kamala Harris has on speed dial
President Joe Biden had the benefit of decadeslong personal relationships with world leaders as he sought to restore U.S. credibility on the global stage. Vice President Kamala Harris, if elected...
View ArticleThe Saudi crown prince is talking about an assassination. His own.
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, knows a thing or two about assassinations. Lately, he’s been telling U.S. lawmakers he’s at risk of one. The Saudi royal has mentioned...
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Cocaine, Jeffrey Epstein and a dead elephant: Royals behaving badly vex...
All families have problems — and royals are no exception. That was Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s message last week, when asked about a scandal enveloping the Norwegian crown princess’...
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Khashoggi death: Saudi ambassador reveals new details
LONDON — Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Britain has aired new details of the country’s reaction to the murder of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi six years ago. The Washington Post...
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