The Eid Al Fitr vacation was quiet for Saudi in the global press, giving a New York Times profile of Princess Reema plenty of room to drive the conversation on the Kingdom in the international press.

MUST READ- Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, our ambassador to Washington, sat down for a long interview-cum-profile in the New York Times. She’s the chief salesperson for “a new vision of the Kingdom to the United States” and stands out as a “friendly face with longtime family ties in Washington, soothing egos and tensions on Capitol Hill,” the paper writes.

Soundbite: “Princess Reema has assiduously worked the Hill. … She has canvassed the committees crucial to the Saudis, foreign relations and armed services, and built up relations with both Democrats and Republicans. She has had visiting Saudi government ministers meet with US officials over Middle Eastern appetizers at her home in McLean, Va., the same place where she grew up. She has traveled the United States, spreading the word on Saudi modernization.”


AND- PGA and Liv Golfers are teeing off against each other at the US Masters tournament, which is not part of either PIF-based Liv or the PGA — it’s an independent tournament founded by a golfer and an stock broker back in 1934. Live and PGA golfers going head to head has prompted the sports and business media alike to ask what’s next for the PGA / Liv / European Tour merger. (The Masters wraps up today.)

Read:Golf’s big deal veers off course (New York Time) and at least two takes from Bloomberg, the best of which is Everyone is rich, no one is happy. The pro golf drama is back.

For our fellow finance nerds: The banker who co-founded the masters? His name was Clifford Roberts. He was a partner at Reynolds & Company until his death. The firm merged with Dean Witter in the late 1950s, later becoming Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in 2001 before Morgan Stanley fully acquired the company after the global financial crisis.


PLUS- Chatter about a slower buildout of Neom continued to get pickups in the foreign press, this time in the Guardian.

AND IN DIPLOMACY-Reuters picked up remarks by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the importance of dialogue to resolve tensions between rivals Pakistan and India. He made the commends during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *