Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the future of U.S.-Saudi relations, a diplomatic clash between China and Japan, and a deadly stabbing in the West Bank.
From Pariah to Partner
U.S. President Donald Trump greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with pomp and pageantry on Tuesday, as part of a White House effort to treat Riyadh less like a problematic but important regional player in the Middle East and more like a treasured ally and business partner. But despite Trump’s attempt to focus on the country’s U.S. investment pledges, Saudi Arabia’s abysmal human rights record and the Trump family’s financial ties to the country have brought heavy scrutiny to the historic visit.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the future of U.S.-Saudi relations, a diplomatic clash between China and Japan, and a deadly stabbing in the West Bank.
From Pariah to Partner
U.S. President Donald Trump greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with pomp and pageantry on Tuesday, as part of a White House effort to treat Riyadh less like a problematic but important regional player in the Middle East and more like a treasured ally and business partner. But despite Trump’s attempt to focus on the country’s U.S. investment pledges, Saudi Arabia’s abysmal human rights record and the Trump family’s financial ties to the country have brought heavy scrutiny to the historic visit.
Tuesday was Mohammed bin Salman’s first trip to Washington since 2018, the same year that the crown prince is believed to have ordered the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Trump and the crown prince both deny the latter’s involvement, contradicting U.S. intelligence.
“No amount of White House pomp or glitz can erase MBS’s culpability in the premeditated torture, killing, and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, one of the most brazen acts of transnational repression in recent memory,” said Uzra Zeya, the president of international organization Human Rights First.
Under Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has accelerated its brutal crackdown on dissent, and this year alone, the country has dramatically increased the number of executions that it has carried out. Yet, Trump heralded the Saudi crown prince on Tuesday, saying, “What he’s done is incredible in terms of human rights and everything else.”
When an ABC journalist asked the pair about Khashoggi, Trump berated the reporter before responding: “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman [Khashoggi] that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he [Mohammed bin Salman] knew nothing about it.” The crown prince said the murder was “a huge mistake, and we’re doing our best that it doesn’t happen again.”
Trump thanked the crown prince for having previously pledged in May that Saudi Arabia would invest $600 billion in the United States. However, on Tuesday, Mohammed bin Salman suggested that this pledge could be raised to as much as $1 trillion, a number previously floated by Trump that is roughly the size of Saudi Arabia’s entire sovereign wealth fund.
The two leaders will also discuss other potential deals, including greater Saudi investment in U.S. artificial intelligence, a U.S.-Saudi defense agreement, bilateral cooperation on developing a civil nuclear energy program in Saudi Arabia, and Riyadh purchasing 48 F-35s from Lockheed Martin. This would be the first U.S. sale of the fighter jets to the kingdom, marking a major policy shift that could alter the power balance in the Middle East. Until now, Israel was the only country in the region to have U.S.-made F-35s.
However, all of this dealmaking has raised ethical concerns that the Trump family could benefit financially. Since Trump’s election in January, Dar Global (a business partner of the Trump Organization) has announced at least four Trump-branded developments in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has contributed around $2 billion to an investment fund run by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and unofficial advisor. And Mohammed bin Salman personally oversees a major construction project that the Trump family is in talks to potentially join.
“What my family does is fine. They do business all over,” Trump said on Tuesday, dismissing these concerns.
Trump and Mohammed bin Salman will attend a dinner with senior U.S. lawmakers and top business leaders late Tuesday before participating in the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum on Wednesday. Although some deals are expected to emerge over the next two days, experts predict that Washington will not make progress in convincing Saudi Arabia to sign the Abraham Accords, as Riyadh continues to insist that it will not normalize ties with Israel absent a “clear path” toward establishing an independent Palestinian state.
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War of words. Tokyo warned Japanese citizens in China on Tuesday to avoid crowded places and take extra safety precautions as tensions between the two Asian powers heat up. Their squabble ignited earlier this month, when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could threaten Japan’s survival and trigger a military response. Her comment triggered fierce backlash from senior Chinese officials and resulted in both nations summoning each other’s ambassadors—a move that experts have described as the most serious diplomatic clash between the two countries in years.
Liu Jinsong, the head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Asia affairs department, met with his Japanese counterpart, Masaaki Kanai, in Beijing on Tuesday in an effort to convince Tokyo to retract Takaichi’s remarks. However, top Japanese spokesperson Minoru Kihara said that Japan will “not alter the government’s existing position” and that Tokyo hopes to resolve this issue through dialogue. China does not recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty and has repeatedly threatened to use force to take control of the island.
Now, rumors are circulating that visa processing and cultural exchanges between Japan and China could be suspended if the situation does not settle soon. Already, hundreds of thousands of Chinese travelers have canceled flights to Japan in anticipation of such drastic measures.
Deadly stabbing. One Israeli citizen was killed and three others injured in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, when two Palestinians attacked in a vehicle-ramming and stabbing incident. Israeli soldiers responded with gunfire, killing the two perpetrators, and said they discovered “explosive materials” in the suspects’ vehicle. The assault occurred at the Gush Etzion junction south of Jerusalem, the site of several past Palestinian militant attacks.
The incident occurred one day after extremist Israeli settlers launched a rampage through the West Bank village of Jaba. Violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has surged in recent months, coinciding with the region’s harvest season; according to a United Nations report, Israeli settlers carried out at least 264 attacks on Palestinians in October, the largest monthly number since the agency began tracking incidents in 2006.
Tuesday’s attack also came just hours after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution on Monday endorsing Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, including the creation of an international stabilization force for regional security and a transitional governing authority overseen by the U.S. president. The resolution also included language that envisions a possible future path to Palestinian independence.
Thirteen member nations approved the resolution, with Russia and China abstaining. Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the latter of which governs parts of the West Bank, applauded the resolution’s passage. But Hamas rejected the vote, saying it does not meet the “Palestinian people’s political and humanitarian demands and rights.”
European tech independence. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined forces with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday to co-host a two-day European Union digital sovereignty conference in Berlin. The summit aims to decrease European dependence on U.S. tech by jump-starting artificial intelligence programs in the cloud computing, medical research, and defense spaces, among others. Currently, the EU relies on the United States for more than half of its cloud services.
To do this, Merz and Macron plan to unveil a data and privacy simplification package on Wednesday that will address overregulation—which some experts say is stymying economic growth—and delay a law that would place greater restrictions on AI usage. This signals a stark change to the EU’s previous approach to Big Tech, having levied billions of dollars in fines on major corporations for antitrust breaches, data abuses, and the publishing of illicit content.
At the same time, European leaders hope to distance themselves from Chinese digital infrastructure. Merz suggested last week that creating a more innovation-friendly environment at home is part of an effort to eventually replace all telecommunications components made by Chinese manufacturer Huawei.
Odds and Ends
Vegemite may be a staple in Australian kitchens, but prisons in the state of Victoria are going without. This has led inmate Andre McKechnie, serving a life sentence for murder, to sue two state agencies for allegedly infringing on his human right to “enjoy his culture as an Australian.” Victorian prisons have banned Vegemite since 2006, claiming that it “interferes with narcotic detection dogs” and that the product’s yeast can be used to make alcohol. But McKechnie, held at maximum-security Port Phillip Prison, is hoping that the Supreme Court of Victoria will reconsider his right to the bitter paste. According to documents seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday, the case is scheduled for trial next year.
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