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The Saudi government is reportedly scaling back its ambitions for some vastly expensive megaprojects, such as The Line linear city in Neom, in a sign that Riyadh is still struggling to attract the amount of foreign direct investment needed to underpin Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s long-term economic reform agenda, while the UAE leads rivals in drawing in FDI.

Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa travelled to Mecca in early April for talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and also sat in on MBS’ meeting with the visiting Pakistani prime minister.

The Onaiza corvette was launched at King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah in early March, with another vessel from the Sarawat project arriving at the Royal Saudi Navy base later in the month. 

A deal between Abu Dhabi giant Adnoc and UK major BP to co-invest in Egyptian gas assets highlights how wealthy Gulf national oil companies are seeking lower-carbon expansion opportunities across Africa, with actors from Qatar and Kuwait also among those on the hunt.

Amnesty International has criticised a draft version of the Penal Code for Discretionary Sentences, which was leaked online in July 2022. The legislation sets out strict punishments for what are often vaguely-worded crimes and fails to guarantee freedom of expression or religion – which caused a diplomatic incident in early March involving a delegation from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom

Princess Fahda Bint Saud Bin Abdelaziz and Princess Fahda Bint Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz were both in their 70s and died in mid-March

King Salman Bin Abdulaziz flew into Jeddah on 9 March, amid fresh speculation about his state of health. His son, Crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman followed a few days later

Two former managers of PetroSaudi International, a company set up by Prince Turki Bin Abdullah, are facing bribery, money laundering and other charges over a 2009 deal with Malaysia’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), which has been at the centre of a major corruption scandal for the past decade

A long-running investigation into millions of dollars’ worth of bribes paid to Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah and his associates in 2007-10 has ended with the two defendants walking free from a London court, after successfully arguing the payments had been approved by the British and Saudi authorities. One defendant’s lawyer told the court his client was being prosecuted to deflect attention from the UK government’s decades of dubious payments in the Gulf

Waves of appointments by King Salman since 2017 have seen younger-generation royals and those from more remote branches of the ruling family appointed to prominent positions, in a break from previous monarchs’ habits

King Salman Bin Abdelaziz’s nine years on the throne have seen a concentration of power in the 88-year-old monarch’s immediate family – who are the subject of the latest GSN profile series – that is unprecedented in modern Saudi history. Other significant branches of the Al-Saud have gone into retreat as Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has taken an iron grip on the kingdom

Saudi Aramco has increased the amount of proven gas reserves in the kingdom’s largest non-associated gas field by 15tcf, taking the total estimated resources at Jafurah to 229tcf

Khalid Bin Salman has been named chairman of the fast-growing state defence industry conglomerate in a reshuffle that reduced the size of Saudi Arabian Military Industries’ board to eight, while bringing in three new well-connected directors

In a $66.5m deal with Houston-headquartered Vaalco Energy, Saudi-Ethiopian businessman Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi is selling Svenska Petroleum Exploration, his Sweden-based oil company that has been up for sale since bankruptcy proceedings were launched against Al-Amoudi’s Petroswede in early 2023

The Independent ran a series of interviews with Al-Saud family members in late February in an advertorial campaign to promote the $20m Saudi Cup horse race. GSN asks who was talking up the event and the background to the British newspaper’s partial Saudi ownership.