Free Republic

Those with a functioning memory may have thought that last week’s decision by Saudi Arabia to maximise oil production to crash oil prices and bankrupt U.S. shale producers was an early April Fool’s Day joke. Apparently, though, it is not, and collective amnesia seems to have gripped senior Saudis and other OPEC members alike about how disastrous the last Saudi Arabia-led attempt to destroy the U.S. shale oil industry from 2014 to 2016 actually was. Appalling though the consequences were last time for Saudi and its now-much-poorer allies, this time around things are likely to be much, much, worse. The...

Will al-Qaeda bring the royal house down? The Riyadh attack, believed to be the work of bin Laden’s supporters, was a challenge to the ruling House of Saud, finds Trevor Royle. Now they must decide whether to appease or confront the critics The bombs which ripped through the Muhaya residential compound in Riyadh last week did more than kill 17 innocent civilians, most of them workers from Lebanon and other Arab countries. They sent a powerful signal that Saudi Arabia is still on the frontline against terrorism and that more of the same can be expected in the months ahead....