MUST-READS

• Dubai Theme Parks
  Watch out Orlando, Dubai wants to be the world’s biggest theme park destination

  While Dubai is currently home to a handful of theme parks -- most notably Wild Wadi and Atlantis The Palm's Aquaventure -- the city has yet to establish much of a track record in the industry. Many projects announced prior to the 2008 crash were assigned to the scrap heap afterwards. "In our industry, there tends to be more announcements of theme parks than those actually built," warns Gerner. "It's a quandary for analysts like myself. Typically we look at new projects as a share of the existing market, so it's very hard to evaluate the potential for going into somewhere entirely new."

• U.S.-Afghanistan
  Major U.S. Army division ends operations in Afghanistan 13 years after it arrived

  In the fall of 2001, the 10th Mountain Division was the first major army unit to arrive in Afghanistan in support of American Special Forces who helped topple the Taliban government. Since then, about 177 soldiers from the division have been killed while serving in the country. “We were the first division here, and I think it’s fitting we’d be the last,” in a combat role, said Maj. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the division’s commander, after a ceremony marking the division’s departure from rugged eastern Afghanistan.

  • WSJ - Pentagon Sought Sanctions Exemptions for Iranian Investment in Afghanistan
  • Small Wars Journal - Opinion: How the Limited Use of Lessons Learned Failed to Form a Cohesive Strategy in Operation Enduring Freedom
  • Bloomberg - Army Slow to Investigate War Gear Missing in Afghanistan
• ISIS Strategy
  War, Interrupted, Part I: The Roots of the Jihadist Resurgence in Iraq

  In the Sunni areas where the Iraqi government had little control, it did not take long for the Islamic State to slowly and methodically eliminate resistance one person at a time. For example, in the small but strategic town of Jurf ah Sakhar south of Baghdad, and on the Sunni-Shia fault line, there were 46 Awakening members reported killed between 2009 and 2013, in 27 different incidents. Most were shot singly or in pairs in the first three years of the campaign, and four were Sheiks from the local Janabi tribe and leaders of the council. By my count, 1,345 Awakening members across Iraq have been killed since the beginning of 2009, and this is a massive undercount as the data is only based on confirmed media reports of killings. More importantly, there are obvious patterns of activity that focus on the contested areas that the Islamic State wants to control.

  • McClatchy - Slaughter of Anbar tribesmen shows weakness in U.S. plan to beat Islamic State
• Iraqi Army
  Why Iraqi army can’t fight, despite $25 billion in U.S. aid, training

  "The army became Maliki's private militia," said retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, who was in charge of military training in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. Iraqis in Shiite-dominated greater Baghdad generally support the army, he said. But he also acknowledged that the army cannot defend the surrounding "Baghdad belt" without the help of thousands of Shiite militiamen Kamil calls "volunteers," particularly because areas just to the north, west and south have a Sunni majority.

• Refining Capacity
  Saudi Arabia adds to oil power with new refineries

  "One thing I think is very sure you are going to see in the next 3-5 years is going to be a shift in Saudi exports away from crude and towards products," Bob McNally, a White House adviser to former President George W. Bush and now president of the Rapidan Group energy consultancy, said after a recent trip to Saudi Arabia.

• Oil Slump
  U.S. Oil Falls to 4-Year Low on Saudi Price Cut

  West Texas Intermediate crude dropped to the lowest intraday level in three years as Saudi Arabia cut prices for crude exports to U.S. customers amid speculation that stockpiles increased. Brent extended losses in London.

  • WSJ - Prices Raised for Asian Markets
  • CNBC - Is the crude market calling Saudi Arabia's bluff?
  • Reuters - Saudi trip to Latam evokes 1990s oil troika with a new rival: U.S.
  • WSJ - Saudi Oil-Price Cut Upends Market
• World Trade Center
  World Trade Center reopens for business

  Some staffers of publishing giant Conde Nast began working at 1 World Trade Center on Monday. The 104-story, $3.9 billion skyscraper dominates the Manhattan skyline. The publishing giant becomes the first commercial tenant in America's tallest building. It's the centerpiece of the 16-acre site where the decimated twin towers once stood and where more than 2,700 people died on Sept. 11, 2001, buried under smoking mounds of fiery debris. The area has prospered in recent years beyond anyone's imagination. About 60,000 more residents now live there — three times more than before 9/11 — keeping streets, restaurants and shops alive even after Wall Street and other offices close for the day.

• Saudi-US
  Saudi student in US jailed for 25 years

  The 25-year-old Saudi had been studying at the University of Northern Iowa and had crashed his car prior to attacking the woman.

  • Arab News - Saudi scholarship students’ troubles in the United States
• Tadawul Opening
  Saudi’s index records worst month in 2014

  Saudi’s stock index registered its worst month this year, on the heels of slumping oil prices.

• Global Oil Markets
  Crude control

  “China has been the key driver of global growth since 2009 and its slowdown will be a drag on the global economy,” said a research note from QNB Economics last week. “Weaker demand from China is also likely to be a drag on international commodity prices, including oil prices, for some time to come.” After several years of prices hovering around $100 a barrel, seemingly entrenched at that level, the sudden decline has exposed how volatile Gulf budgets remain.

  • Kansas City Star - Dark side of the boom: Diving oil prices could curb U.S. production
  • Business Insider - America's Path To Energy Independence In One Chart Read
  • WSJ - Energy Boom Can Withstand Steeper Oil-Price Drop
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