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Budget talks in Baghdad are going down to the wire over the thorny issue of allocations to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The negotiations are the latest manifestation of a long-running dispute between Iraq’s centre and its periphery that has proved stubbornly immune to resolution since the late Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime was ousted in 2003. There is added friction in the Baghdad-Erbil standoff, with Iraqi Shia parties increasingly vexed at what they view as a resurgence of Kurdish independence hopes.

An attempt by GCC secretary-general Nayef Al-Hajraf to convene a fresh round of dialogue in Riyadh for Yemen war belligerents appears to have failed, with the Houthis refusing to take part. However, there are signs of further Saudi-inspired political initiatives to break the stalemate on the ground, which could have significant consequences for President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the wider political process.

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.

The UAE's early September announcement that it had set up a federal gambling regulator is a further sign of how the competition between regional economies is pushing them to diversify into areas that would previously have been regarded as too sensitive or even taboo.

Even before the new Gaza war shattered comfortable assumptions about regional security, the global economic climate had been hostile, as shown in analysis of the International Monetary Fund's new reports on the global outlook and regional economic performance.

Emir Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah has repeatedly called for a new approach to overhaul Kuwait’s factionalised politics and boost economic reform – a position he restated in his inaugural address on 20 December. But changing a system that appears to encourage stasis rather than co-operation will not be easy for Kuwait’s new, 83 year-old ruler. 

The positions, or at least the credibility, of some members of the Al-Thani look perilous in the glare of the global scrutiny reignited by The Sunday Times’ investigations into how corruption might have influenced Qatar’s win of the 2022 Fifa World Cup. But this is not the first time Gulf-centred corruption has erupted across the world’s media, and the Gulf’s ruling families appear to have a good survival record. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar Bin Sultan’s activities surrounding the 1985 Al-Yamamah arms sales appeared – to consumers of western media at least – to threaten his powerbase.

The extent of Dubai’s economic downturn is preoccupying many GSN readers. Here are some short attempts at answers to some deep, difficult questions: How deep is the crisis? – Dubai’s economic survival rests on its ability to refinance debt, but the extent of that debt is unknown.

Two decades after Saddam Hussein’s invasion and in the fifth year of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s rule, is a more positive investment and policy implementation story starting to emerge from Kuwait? The sometimes beleaguered prime minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah seems to think so.

Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said’s decision to merge the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) and the Oman Investment Fund (OIF) – announced via a royal decree on 4 June – brings to an end a debate that has rumbled on since 2017. The new Oman Investment Authority (OIA) will combine the $14.3bn of assets held by the SGRF and $3.4bn from the OIF. To be independent of the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the new entity will report directly to the Council of Ministers.

After months of speculation that the ruling Al-Thanis would make a grand gesture to unite a swathe of the Qatari population behind them, heir apparent Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani on 6 September announced Decree 50/2011, ordering salary, social allowance and pension increases for civil service and military employees (current and retired).

Regular Twitter user and Rice University history professor Ussama Makdisi made a fair point among the cacophony of noise around the £305m ($415m) Saudi takeover of English Premier League (EPL) club Newcastle United FC when he tweeted @UssamaMakdisi: “The message of Western liberals so concerned seems to be: please buy our military hardware and jetliners and Range rovers but don’t buy our football clubs?”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, host of the 26th Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), is rarely short of a pithy quip aimed at his support base. Indeed, whole policies have been woven around his notion that the UK electorate can “have its cake and eat it”, however misleading that may be. Johnson’s allies – and even his critics – in the Gulf’s oil and gas producing states would appreciate that sentiment as they emerge from the climate talks, due to end on 12 November.

For all the build-up, United States President Joe Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia on 15-16 July ended up being a distinctly underwhelming occasion. The grubby compromises of realpolitik were on clear display, but without the glittering prizes of any ‘historic’ breakthrough, either in political or economic terms.

Governments across the Gulf are enjoying another boom in  oil  and gas prices, which is all the more welcome given the fiscal crunch in many economies caused by the Covid pandemic.