France’s Macron meets the crown prince of Saudi Arabia at the last stop in the Gulf

In Saudi Arabia, Macron met the crown prince in the Red Sea city of Jiddah, where the kingdom is in the process of hosting its first formula one race and a pop concert by Justin Bieber, despite calls for a boycott by human rights groups. It is the young crown prince’s latest push to introduce the social reforms he has initiated and hailed. At the same time, however, the prince also led a widespread crackdown on human rights activists and critics, culminating in the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in late 2018 in Saudi Arabia. Turkey, an operation that contaminated the prince’s reputation abroad.