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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.

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

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.

Saudi officials have been lobbying for international support for Riyadh's bid to host Expo 2030, in the wake of the formal bid launch in June by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, during his visit to Paris.

Political upgrade: It may seem not the most opportune moment to remove the downwards negative trend arrow from Saudi Arabia’s ‘B’ political risk rating – coming amid more speculation that King Salman Bin Abdelaziz’s health is fading and with the International Monetary Fund giving the kingdom its “steepest growth downgrade among major economies”, as Bloomberg put it on 25 July, and longer-term investment plans in question.

The high-profile campaign to make Saudi Arabia a global power in football, golf and other sports has, in many ways, eclipsed the state's domestic spending – which conventional policy wonks might say should be of greater importance to the 22m population – but the activities of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS)'s prized Public Investment Fund (PIF) over the past few months tells an equally important story.

Saudi Arabia is trying to leverage its burgeoning relationship with China to further its aims in Yemen. And Chinese officials have expressed some interest in getting involved. However, the UAE views the idea of greater Chinese involvement as an attempt to undermine its position.

A Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) F-15 SA fighter jet crashed, and its crew was killed, on 26 July, while taking part in a training mission around the city of Khamis Mushait. It is the second serious incident involving an RSAF F-15 jet, after an F-15 S crashed last November, during a routine training mission in the King Abdelaziz Air Base training area in Eastern province.

There has been fresh speculation about the health of King Salman Bin Abdelaziz, after dissident Saudi blogger Mujtahidd claimed the monarch had not attended a cabinet meeting since 23 May and that images purporting to show him at two meetings since then had been fabricated.

Saudi Arabia signed a deal to buy the Akinci combat drone from Turkey’s Baykar Technology, during a visit to the kingdom by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Bayraktar called it the largest defence and aviation export contract in Turkish history.