Headlines:

• Trump: We Own Saudi Arabia
• Saudi Monarchy and the Missing Journalist
• The Global Economy is on the verge of the next Great Depression

Trump: We Own Saudi Arabia

At a rally in Mississippi president Trump bragged about putting his foot down with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and demanding more military spending, following accusations that he and other OPEC nations are “ripping off the rest of the world.” Trump told the rally “I love the king, King Salman. But I said King – we’re protecting you – you might not be there for two weeks without us – you have to pay for your military.”  Saudi Arabia has been among the world’s leaders in military spending in recent years, reflecting massive expenditures on their war in Yemen, and continued purchases of huge amounts of US arms. Most scandals surrounding Saudi military spending are not that they’re spending too little, but that they’re buying so much deadly armament and killing so many civilians in neighbouring Yemen. The Saudi royal family has been a key took for one power or another throughout its entire history. Initially they supported British goals of separating the Hijaz from the Ottomans. During the Cold War, Saudi backed many Jihadi groups, claiming this was to further wahabism, but MBS recently admitted that this was at the request of the West in order to contain communism.

Saudi Monarchy and the Missing Journalist

Jamal Khasshoghi a Saudi journalist visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on the 3rd October 2018, his fiancée waited for him outside, but he never returned. After 3 days Turkish authorities announced they believe a Saudi Security team tortured and murdered him. Khasshogi was a well-known journalist in the Kingdom especially for his criticism of the Saudi monarchy. His most recent writings criticised the Saudi Crown Prince on parts of his reform drive. If it turns out that the Saudi monarchy murdered him it would be a very desperate act for a monarchy that has been in power for so long. It also shows the monarchy is preparing to go to any means to deal with any dissent.

The Global Economy is on the verge of the next Great Depression

The world economy is at risk of another financial meltdown, following the failure of governments and regulators to push through all the reforms needed to protect the system from reckless behaviour, the International Monetary Fund has warned. With global debt levels well above those at the time of the last crash in 2008, the risk remains that unregulated parts of the financial system could trigger a global panic, the Washington-based lender of last resort said. It also warned that “large challenges loom for the global economy to prevent a second Great Depression”. Despite bailing out the banks and cutting expenditure to the masses to save the banks, the banks have continued doing exactly what they did that caused the crisis 10 years ago. 10 years on and with the population of most of the developing world poorer, nothing has really changes.