Tag: saudi arabia

To appeal to the Dubai-inclined, M.B.S. has lifted a ban on cinemas, courted music festivals, and reined in the religious police. A ski resort is in the works. Schenker and others predict that M.B.S. will legalize drinking in some form when he assumes the throne. The centerpiece of his plans is Neom, which he has described, privately, as Dubai but better. According to the Wall Street Journal, he envisioned sand that glows in the dark and an artificial moon; canals for swim-commuting have been mentioned. The project, which is expected to consume half a trillion dollars, is a money pit; according to Bloomberg, Neom’s C.E.O. displays a graphic that former employees called the “wall of shame,” showing department heads who failed to spend enough. But other developments, elsewhere on the Red Sea and around Riyadh, are farther along. Included in the plans is an amenity that the Saudis believe will draw wealthy Westerners: golf.

The clubs’ names were created by an advisory group of fourth-grade boys, apparently: Crushers, Fireballs, Hy Flyers, Iron Heads, Punch, Torque, Smash.

“If Saudi Arabia want to use the game of golf as a way for them to get to where they want to be, and they have the resources to accelerate that experience,” one of the LIV Golf signings, the former U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell said this week, “I think we’re proud to help them on that journey.”

There still isn’t a consensus on this. Some believe that The Atlantic handed Salman a megaphone and didn’t do enough to tamp down his lies. Others believe that The Atlantic story showed Salman for what he is, which is quite possibly a sociopath.

Since 2015, the Crown Prince has also got the country bogged down in a costly and unwinnable war in Yemen, which has spawned the world’s largest humanitarian disaster. And now he has disrupted the kingdom’s relationship with the United States, its most important ally. The Biden Administration has notified the kingdom that it will no longer provide offensive military equipment to pursue the war in Yemen, although it has vowed to continue selling weapons to defend the kingdom. This weekend, after the Saudi military intercepted a missile attack near the capital and bomb-laden drones in the south, both launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen, the State Department reaffirmed its “longstanding partnership” to protect the kingdom. Yet experts say that Saudi Arabia needs the United States far more than Washington needs Riyadh. “We have total and absolute leverage over the Saudi military,” Riedel said.