Commentary: Will the Khashoggi case bring down Saudi Arabia's crown prince?The 33-year-old Mohammed bin Salman appears to have vastly misjudged the reaction to the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi as well as the power of Donald Trump and Jared Kushner to defend the interests of Saudi Arabia in the U.S. Congress, writes David Andelman, a former foreign correspondent of author of "A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today." "Whether MbS is actually the individual able to take up the challenge of reforming Saudi Arabia and leading it is becoming increasingly questionable."
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the man who persuaded school-friend Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard to start what became the world’s biggest software company, died at the age of 65, his family said.
At week’s end, global investors and policy makers will likely be given a stark reminder of the costs of a bitter Sino-U.S. trade war, with a Reuters poll predicting that China’s third-quarter growth will slow to its weakest pace since the global financial crisis.
A rise in oil prices to four-year highs is heaping pressure on big emerging-market crude consumers such as Turkey, India, Indonesia and South Africa that are already grappling with current account deficits, weak currencies and rising inflation.
The Italian cabinet signed off on an expansionary 2019 budget, boosting welfare spending, cutting the retirement age and hiking the deficit to set up a showdown with authorities in Brussels over compliance with EU rules.
