“Having grown up in the United States as the daughter of an ambassador and with a personal connection to both of our nations, I see a horizon of unlimited potential in our cooperation. Saudi Arabia stands at the meeting point of three continents — Asia, Europe and Africa — but America is closest to our hearts. Tomorrow, President Biden will see a storied land with a new, younger face. And we will share with him and the world Saudi Arabia’s vision of progress and partnership.”
Reema Bandar Alsaud, Saudi Ambassador to the United States. [Politico]
“On Friday, after taking a direct flight from Israel, Biden will make history as the oldest U.S. president to visit Saudi Arabia. Biden is also the only U.S. president to visit Saudi Arabia during the summer season, according to State Department records. Richard Nixon visited just days before the summer solstice in 1974. Not only is Biden the first U.S. president to visit during summer, he’s traveling at close to what is the climatologically warmest time of year there.”
“Food is one of the top four categories on YouTube in the MENA region, a spokeswoman for the company said. (The other three are lifestyle, music and, more recently, gaming.) In the last five years, the number of female-led channels in the region with more than one million subscribers has grown 30-fold, to 150 channels today.”
Cooking Online, Arab Women Find Income and Community [New York Times]
“More than half of the projected increase in global population up to 2050 will be concentrated in just eight countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania. Disparate growth rates among the world’s largest countries will re-order their ranking by size.”
India is set to surpass China in 2023 as the world’s most populous nation [Quartz]
“As president, it is my job to keep our country strong and secure. We have to counter Russia’s aggression, put ourselves in the best possible position to outcompete China, and work for greater stability in a consequential region of the world. To do these things, we have to engage directly with countries that can impact those outcomes. Saudi Arabia is one of them, and when I meet with Saudi leaders on Friday, my aim will be to strengthen a strategic partnership going forward that’s based on mutual interests and responsibilities, while also holding true to fundamental American values.”
-President Joe Biden. [Washington Post]
“If push comes to shove then Aramco have 1 million bpd that they can get into the market relatively quickly, but that can’t be sustained for long…”
-An unnamed source in comments to Reuters. How much Saudi Arabia can really pump “is an industry secret and skepticism on this usually grows at times of high oil prices and strained global production,” according to the report. [Reuters]
“The number of emerging markets with sovereign debt that trades at distressed levels — yields that indicate investors believe default is a real possibility — has more than doubled in the past six months, according to data compiled from a Bloomberg index. Collectively, those 19 nations are home to more than 900 million people, and some — such as Sri Lanka and Lebanon — are already in default.”
-Sydney Maki, Bloomberg. A quarter-trillion dollars of distressed debt globally is threatening to drag the developing world into a historic cascade of defaults. [Bloomberg]
“By accelerating scientific research, we can actually decelerate aging and its consequences. We see aging as the second-most pressing challenge to humanity, after climate change…Worldwide, the experience of aging is not improving very much. The average lifespan has risen dramatically over the past century or so, but the number of people with chronic diseases has also risen. We are living longer, but not necessarily better.”
–Dr. Mehmood Khan, CEO of The Hevolution Foundation – overseen by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and funded with $1 billion, in comments to Al Arabiya. [Al Arabiya]
“[Mohammad Barkindo] will be remembered as a significant figure in the history of global energy governance…He was an exceptional diplomat who made a remarkable contribution to the stability of global energy markets.”
-Joseph McMonigle, secretary general of the International Energy Forum. Barkindo, secretary general of OPEC, died aged 63. [Reuters]
“The new book is published by Assouline Publishing House in London, which held the launching ceremony with HRH Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud. The Saudi Ambassador to the United States has been one of the country’s key players in protecting Arabian leopards, and is also well known as the founding president of Catmosphere, which focuses on raising awareness regarding big cat conservation.”
