MUST-READS

• Saudi History
  Driving Riyadh – The Beast

  The life of a Yemeni electrician was quite perilous, about a third of them being inadvertently electrocuted in their first week on the job. Blissfully unaware of Ohm’s law or Von Helmholtz’s first theorem, they pressed on: connecting red wires to red wires and learning the perils of grounding yourself to a high voltage line while standing in water. I imagined that the energetic Yayha was rolling in riyals because he was the electrical contractor of choice in the poorer neighborhoods of Riyadh. Rapid expansion had stressed the municipality beyond its limits, and service to these older areas was virtually ignored, so Yayha would climb a pole, tap into a live high voltage line, string dozens of illegal power lines down the street and bill his customers monthly.

• Saudi Clergy
  Saudi Rulers Reconsider Ties to Wahhabi Clergy

  Saudi Arabia remains one of the most religiously conservative countries on earth, and the royal family is not cutting off the clergy or ditching Wahhabism's basic precepts, analysts and diplomats say. They are instead attempting to foster a reading of its teachings that distances it from Islamist militants such as Islamic State, and which better meets the demands of a modern economy.

• Construction
  Saudi construction sector to record 11pc growth

  A rising population, plans to overcome the housing shortage, and efforts to develop the transport network and renewable energy infrastructure will set the Saudi Arabian construction industry on track to record a growth of 10.98 per cent CAGR compound annual growth rate until 2018, a report said.

• Saudi - Lebanon
  Saudi deputy crown prince calls for presidential solution in Lebanon

  After meeting Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea in Riyadh Monday, a high-ranking Saudi official called for the swift election of a new president in Lebanon, according to a statement issued by Geagea’s office.

• Women in Saudi Arabia
  Saudi Women Hope For Greater Rights In 2015

  In the municipal elections slated for next year, Saudi women will get the chance to vote and run for office for the very first time. And while experts predict that their franchise will have little effect on the day-to-day realities in the kingdom, most believe it’s a very big deal for women themselves, if only as a step in the gradual softening of gender-based restrictions that bar Saudi women from virtually all elements of public life.

• Start-Up Investment
  Saudi Arabia builds start-up culture with state oil money

  Saudi Aramco founded its Aramco Entrepreneurship Center (AEC) in 2011. Its managing director Sami Khursani told Reuters: "We have Aramco’s support to invest more and more. Money here is not an issue - we are looking for quality deals that are entrepreneurially promising."

  • Forbes - Saudi Arabia's Entrepreneurial Elite 2014
• U.S. - Saudi
  Obama includes Republicans in big delegation to meet new Saudi King

  President Barack Obama will fly a 30-member delegation, including top officials and respected Republican foreign policy veterans, to Riyadh on Tuesday to meet Saudi Arabia's new King Salman as the crisis in neighboring Yemen continues to boil.

  • Washington Institute for Near East Policy - Riyadh Rendezvous: Obama to Meet with New Saudi King
  • Bloomberg/Businessweek - Obama Visits New Saudi King to Bolster Ties Amid Turmoil
  • The Atlantic - Opinion: The Twilight of Saudi Power
  • CNN - Obama defends Saudi relationship: 'Sometimes we have to balance'
  • BBC News - Obama visits Saudi Arabia's new King Salman
  • Bloomberg - Obama Visits New Saudi King to Bolster Ties Amid Mideast Turmoil
• U.S. Congress and the Middle East
  McCain will use influential Senate perch to push for expanded Middle East response

  Now, as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, McCain will have the opportunity to amplify his critique of Obama’s handling of Iraq and Syria and, by doing so, test the panel’s influence over military policy and operations.

• Tracking Jihadis
  How a team of social media experts is able to keep track of the UK jihadis

  On a labyrinthine upper floor of King’s College London is the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR), the first global initiative of its type, whose offices are frequently contacted by counter-terrorism officers, hungry for information on the continuing flow of Britons to the ranks of Isis.

• ICT
  Saudi firms to spend $37B on ICT in 2015

  Spending on ICT products and services in Saudi Arabia will increase 4.6% year-on-year in 2015 to total $36.95 billion, according to IDC.

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