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Saudi King Salman Bin Abdelaziz travelled from Jeddah to the new northwestern city of Neom on 1 September. He chaired a cabinet meeting in the city on 5 September. The ruler spent an extended period in Neom in 2020 and 2021. 

Several Saudi ruling family members are involved in the food and hospitality sectors, including Prince Saud Bin Abdelaziz Bin Fahd Al-Farhan,  Prince Waleed Bin Nasser Bin Fahd, Prince Abdelaziz Bin Saud Al-Saud and Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed. 

Personnel from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the 8,000 troops from 19 African, European and Middle East countries involved in the Bright Star 23 exercise, which is being led by the United States and Egypt, and is centred around the Mohammed Neguib Military Base, west of Alexandria.

It is not yet the dawn of a new world order, but the formal invitation for Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to join the Brics group is a further sign of China’s growing influence and of wider shifting global alignments. A turbocharged Brics could boost the trend towards 'dedollarising' international trade, as Gulf states and other 'middle powers' seek to find a balance between the world's established and emerging powers. 

The Saudi economy fell into a recession in Q2, with initial estimates pointing to a quarter-on-quarter decline of 0.1% in GDP during the period, following a 1.4% fall in Q1. While non-oil activity grew, the limits the government has imposed on oil output meant the oil sector contracted by 1.4%.

Arguably the biggest impact of an expanded Brics membership could be its potential boost to the trend towards the 'dedollarisation' of international trade. 

Saudi border guards have been accused of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants trying to cross the border from Yemen between March 2022 and June 2023. The Saudi government said the allegations were "unfounded".

Saudi Arabia is continuing to push to join an initiative by Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom to develop a sixth-generation fighter jet. Saudi defence minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman had claimed in March the kingdom was set to join the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme but this was soon politely denied by the UK. 

A Royal Saudi Air Force Tornado fighter jet crashed late August during a routine training mission in Dhahran. The two crew members survived and there were no injuries on the ground.  It was the second loss of an aircraft in as many months.

The Specialised Criminal Court in Riyadh has sentenced retired teacher Mohammed Al-Ghamdi to death for a series of tweets in which he criticised corruption and unemployment levels and called for the release of political prisoners.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)'s mother Fahda Bint Falah Bin Sultan Al-Hithlain arrived in Morocco for a holiday in August, according to local media reports. Her presence in public is very rarely recorded.

Gulf royal families have generally been closely associated with only a narrow range of traditional preferred sports – including camel racing, horse racing and falconry – but younger Saudi princes and princesses now occupy senior positions in bodies overseeing a far wider range of pursuits, from motorsport and esports to triathlons and diving. Their efforts to promote sports and attract international events feed into Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's economic and social diversification drive.

At least three Al-Saud princes called on UAE President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) to offer their condolences on the recent death of his brother Sheikh Saeed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

Saudi Prince Turki Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Kabir died aged 70. Funeral prayers were held at Imam Turki Bin Abdullah Mosque in Riyadh. With a PhD in political science from the University of London, he had a long career in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Saudi Aramco underlined the kingdom's deepening relationships with China when the national champion announced the acquisition of a 10% stake in Rongsheng Petrochemical Company.