The episode involving Turki Al‑Sheikh and Canelo Álvarez cannot be treated as a harmless anecdote or a fleeting display of personal warmth. It is a compressed illustration of how public money is administered in Saudi Arabia under the banners of...
As Israel’s assault on Palestine intensifies—leaving mass civilian casualties in Gaza and the West Bank in full view of the world—Saudi Arabia continues to project a carefully managed dual posture. Publicly, official statements affirm support for...
The suspension of work on The Mukaab is not a routine technical adjustment, nor a minor funding review. It is a revealing moment that exposes an entire phase of Saudi Arabia’s economic and political management. A project once promoted as an...
The most disturbing aspect of the Ghannam Al-Masarir case is not that the Saudi government hacked the phone of an opposition figure living in exile. It is what this act reveals about the nature of power in Saudi Arabia today: governance driven by...
After tens of billions of dollars in spending and years of marketing NEOM as a twenty-first-century marvel, Saudi Arabia is now being forced into a significant strategic retreat. What was once promoted as a futuristic city redefining urbanism...
It is no longer possible to separate Saudi Arabia’s sports spectacle from the broader economic trajectory the country is now facing. What once appeared as disconnected events—quiet arenas filled with manufactured crowds, banks borrowing at record...
The case of French citizen Amr Abdel Fattah does not expose a procedural lapse or an isolated security excess. It reveals an entire system in which detention is weaponized to break individuals, exceptional courts are used as cover, and official...
Saudi Arabia’s sports project over the past few years has been built on a single assumption: that unlimited money can buy everything—sporting legitimacy, global prestige, and a rebranded national image, regardless of how deep the structural...
Mohammed bin Salman’s political behavior can no longer be separated from a growing sense of internal fragility. Beneath the language of strength, spectacle, and ambition lies a convergence of economic, social, and political pressures that have...
By late 2025 and early 2026, Saudi Arabia’s negative economic indicators could no longer be dismissed as cyclical fluctuations or temporary slowdowns manageable through official reassurances. Taken together, rising unemployment, weakening non-oil...