1 Saudi Arabia flexing its muscles (Frank Gardner on
BBC) Something is stirring in Saudi Arabia. Gone is the historically
conservative, don't-rock-the-boat, tip-toeing approach to the big, strategic
issues of the Middle East. In its place has come a new, assertive attitude that
is seeing the oil-rich kingdom set off on previously untried and potentially
risky ventures.
In Yemen, the Saudi military has now been at war
with Houthi rebels for more than four months. In Syria, Saudi patronage for
Islamist rebels opposed to the government of President Bashar al-Assad has been
stepped up dramatically - and, on the Iran nuclear deal, well-placed Saudi
sources have let it be known that if they assess Tehran as likely to acquire
nuclear weapons in the future, then Saudi Arabia will go down the same path,
triggering a Middle Eastern arms race.
The Saudis felt utterly let down by their long-time
American allies. They had been hoping that combined international military
action against the Assad regime in Syria would finally turn the corner in that
country's civil war, removing Iran's only allied Arab ruler, President Assad,
and replacing him with a Sunni-led government.
When this did not happen, the senior Saudi princes
and decision-makers resolved that, from then on, they would have to take
matters into their own hands. Step forward the young, militarily inexperienced,
but highly ambitious Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the most favoured son of King
Salman Bin Abdulaziz al-Saud. At about 30 years old, he is possibly the world's
youngest defence minister.
After four months of relentless pounding of Houthi
positions with air strikes, the blockading of Yemeni ports and airports and the
landing in Aden of an entire UAE armoured brigade, the Houthis are now on the
back foot. For Saudi Arabia, this is about more than just securing its southern
flank. The Saudis fear they are being steadily encircled by Iranian allies and
this is something they want to reverse.
So how will this end? Badly, say Saudi Arabia's
detractors. They think the country is over-reaching itself and backing some
dangerous players in places like Syria, feeding into a wave of Sunni jihadism
that will bring more violence from IS supporters to the streets of Saudi
Arabia, as well as elsewhere. But some seasoned observers say that, in the wake
of the disastrous Arab Spring that has brought such misery to much of the Arab
world, Saudi Arabia had no choice but to look after its own interests, irrespective
of what Washington is up to.
2 Want to be the last coal investor? (Graham Ruddick
in The Guardian) Henri de Castries is chief executive and chairman of one of
the world’s biggest insurers, Axa, and a member of France’s illustrious noble
house of Castries. He is also chairman of the Bilderberg group, a collection of
political and business leaders from Europe and North America that meets in
private every year to debate “megatrends and major issues facing the world”.
With this in mind, De Castries’s penchant for making
dramatic comparisons is worth taking seriously. The charismatic Axa boss
compares investing in fossil fuels to investing in asbestos-related companies
in the 50s or 60s, the rise of the internet to the advent of electricity at the
end of the 19th century and, perhaps most alarmingly, the recent fall in
Chinese share prices with the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
De Castries says the stock market slump in China is
“more worrying” than the Greek debt crisis. An estimated 100m Chinese
households have invested in shares, he explains, meaning there could be an
impact on consumer spending. This would hurt western companies that have become
reliant on Chinese consumers for growth, such as carmakers and luxury brands.
However, the Frenchman believes that policy makers
have learnt from the mistakes of 1929, and from how the 2008 financial crisis
was handled. “The Chinese economy of 2015 is not the US economy of ‘29,” he
adds. “A lot of decision makers are much more aware of what the consequences of
monetary policies are, and the efficiency of the Chinese government in 2015 and
its grip on the civil society is probably higher than the grip the US
authorities had on their own public opinion at the time. So we will see. It is
interesting. History in the making.”
“If the cost of investing in non-clean technologies
goes up because there are less people willing to invest, then it is going to
lead to a natural reorientation of the investments. Look back and would you
have been a conscious investor in the 50s or in the 60s in asbestos-related
companies, had you known what would come afterwards? Probably not. Do you
really want to be the last investor?”
However, De Castries is reluctant to go a step
further and sell off oil investments, claiming it is a different case to coal. “It
is way too early to say,” De Castries says. “It is clear that oil is a
different case, shale gas is a different case. What we say today, and it is a
relatively new approach is that for us the coal case is clear.”
3 Tesla unveils Snakebot recharger (David R Baker in
San Francisco Chronicle) Depending on where you fall on the geek spectrum, it’s
either the coolest or creepiest thing you’ll see this week.
Tesla Motors posted online a brief video clip of its
‘Snakebot’, a recharging system for the electric Model S sedan that plugs
itself in, no hands required. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has mentioned the technology
before, but this is the first time the Palo Alto company has offered a glimpse
of it.
Why creepy? Two reasons. One: it makes humans seem
even more like the irrelevant lumps of flesh we probably are. If our machine
masters don’t even need us to plug them in anymore, what’s left? And two:
Snakebot turns out to bear an uncanny resemblance to the Borg Queen’s spine in
“Star Trek: First Contact.” Even Musk noted the inherent creepiness, tweeting
that Snakebot “Does seem kinda wrong.”
It’s probably no coincidence Tesla released the
video — perfect viral fodder — on Thursday. The company’s stock dropped nearly
9 percent Thursday after Tesla warned that it may not make quite as many cars
this year as forecast.
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