Weekend Box #141: From Syria to Riyadh & more

Editor's Note

Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s round-up of interesting or obscure political, business, and cultural news from around the world.

At the end of every busy week in Westminster, ministerial private offices ask their departments to submit papers to the ‘weekend box’ for Ministers and Secretaries of State to catch up with over the weekend. Similarly, we would like to send you into the weekend with a few stories to catch up with at your leisure.

So, let’s delve inside The Weekend Box.

From Syria to Riyadh

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh this week, on his first foreign trip since being confirmed last week as president of a transitional government. The visit demonstrated Saudi Arabia’s lead in the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Syria after 14 years of civil war, as well as a shift in alliances for Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

After meeting the Crown Prince with his Foreign Minister, who had visited Damascus the week before, al-Sharaa said in a written statement that they had discussed humanitarian and economic cooperation, along with "extensive future plans in the fields of energy, technology, education, and health." A Saudi statement said the pair had discussed improving bilateral ties and regional developments.

Al-Sharaa has been at pains to demonstrate that he is a leader for all Syrians since defeating the Assad regime while head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham?(HTS) Islamist militia. He needs urgent assistance to address a huge humanitarian challenge and consolidate a political process that must tie in disparate ethnic and political factions still holding power and territory around the country. His background, with its links to Al Qaeda, has made Western nations nervous about lifting sanctions. Saudi Arabia has led efforts to address concerns and secure international support, hosting Syria's new?foreign and defence ministers?in early January and a meeting of Syrian, Arab and Western officials that followed.

The Assad regime was estranged from its Arab neighbours and suspended from the Arab League after its brutal crackdown on protests in 2011. Instead, it leant on Iran and Russia for support. Saudi Arabia readmitted Syria to the League in 2023, partly to try and curb the trade in the methamphetamine Captagon, trafficked by the Assad regime to raise funds and widely abused in the Gulf region, but without success. As Saudi invests effort and billions of petrodollars in Syria’s reconstruction, it will no doubt seek better results in return.

Image Credit: Russian Presidential Executive Office. Edited.?License.

Panama Hits the Belt and Road

As if the tariffs weren’t enough, this week the Trump administration continued to make waves internationally with a series of foreign policy manoeuvres by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

On Sunday, President Trump’s top diplomat met with Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino and Foreign Minister Javier Martínez-Acha on their home turf, as part of a tour of Central America. The meeting made good on the US president’s promise that Rubio would “talk to the gentleman that's in charge” of Panama about how to ‘take back’ the Panama Canal, a highly significant waterway for global trade connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

America relinquished full control of the Canal to Panama in 1999, but President Trump, who “campaigned on winning an economic competition against China,” and recently inaugurated a back-and-forth of slapping tariffs on imports between the countries, claims that the waterway has come too greatly under Chinese control.

Following the meeting, President Mulino announced that Panama’s “broad agreement to contribute” to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, the massive infrastructure project that has broadened the country’s influence globally, will not be renewed.

Rubio posted on X that the decision “is a great step forward for US-Panama relations” and “a free Panama Canal.”

The secretary also discussed curbing illegal migration with President Mulino and the foreign minister. Migration was similarly a theme of his meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, where the president agreed to accept US deportees of any nationality and “dangerous criminals currently in custody,” regardless of whether they are US citizens or legal residents of America.

The secretary has accomplished all of the above while also becoming acting director of the foreign aid and development agency USAID, which suddenly closed its offices this week. There is concern the agency’s global development and assistance programmes, as well as humanitarian efforts, are under threat.

Image Credit: US Embassy Panama.?License.

Hundreds of Millions

How to keep professional cricket in England commercially viable is a question that has vexed the game’s administrators for decades.

In 2017, it decided to push ahead with a bold commercial strategy: create a new domestic tournament and risk upsetting traditionalists in a bid to attract new audiences and new money.

Ultimately launched in 2021, the new tournament, called The Hundred, was heavily?productised and marketed. It caused much harrumphing from purists who thought it brash and, well, ‘just not cricket.’ Created and solely owned by the central administrators – the ECB – and not the traditional county boards, some saw it as a greedy power-grab.

This week we saw their gamble seems to have paid off.

Each of The Hundred’s eight teams were put up for sale in an auction process. At the time of writing, they are together valued at over ￡800m.

For the game to receive a cash injection approaching ￡1bn is a massive deal. Cricket bosses were scarcely?able to believe the level of interest and bids teams were receiving.

The investments mean each of the 18 traditional counties will receive ￡11m each – that is double, triple, even quadruple the annual profits of many of them. Grassroots cricket will receive at least ￡40m. Together, it is probably enough to secure the game’s future in England for a generation, if used?wisely.

The interest of the investors – who have included a?Silicon Valley consortium and NFL star Tom Brady – reflects the global growth of cricket. It also underlines the cultural capital of the English game. Lord’s cricket ground is a veritable site of pilgrimage for global fans and no other country can boast the same cricketing heritage.

It shows English sport beyond football is highly?investible, and it’s a lesson in how the bold calls that risk upsetting people are sometimes necessary for success.

Image Credit: wolliwoo. License.

Dior? Chanel? It's Anyone's Guess...

The Emanuels & Princess Diana. Yves Saint Laurent & Princess Margaret. Barbour?& Prince Charles. Norman Hartnell & Queen Elizabeth. The Royal Family has had a long and stylish history of being dressed by the very best, forging timeless fashion partnerships that have seen them through the many royal engagements that define their public lives. Whether hosting a state visit, carrying out their charity work, or just going about their daily lives, what the royal family wears matters.

So it came as something of a surprise this week that Kensington Palace announced that they would no longer be releasing details of what Princess Catherine is wearing, citing the fact that she wishes to move the conversation away from her clothes and back to her work. The outfits of the Princess of Wales have, since Day 1 of her entrance into the Royal Family, been the talk of the town. Such is the pulling power of her attire that just a whisper of her donning a brand has the ability to send sales skyrocketing. Dubbed The ‘Kate effect,’ this surge in popularity has of course been very welcome to a plethora of brands over the past two decades, but perhaps most particularly those independent British designers she has supported in the past.

There is no doubt this latest Kensington Palace move will be a blow to many, and seems particularly oddly timed given it comes just weeks after it was announced that the Princess would be bestowing her seal of approval to her favoured brands via royal warrants. The past few years have been marred by independent brand closures, including some of our most treasured heritage brands. Even the likes of greats such as Aquascutum and Matches Fashion have found the combination of Brexit, supply chain difficulties, and an ever-evolving sales model too huge a challenge to navigate. Whilst the Princess’ sentiment is outwardly noble, to bring the focus back to her work and the charities she supports, it is a shame that this may come at the disadvantage of those independent British designers and brands that have so valued her support over the years.

Image Credit: Ricky Wilson. License.

Prize-Winner Badgers Govt

A sombre photo with a message for the UK Government has won the Natural History Museum's 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award.

Entitled ‘No Access,’ the nocturnal image depicts a badger appearing to look up at a piece of graffiti on a wall, placed there by photographer Ian Wood, of a cartoon badger wielding a handgun in each paw. The title of the piece alludes to a sign on the wall.

Wood’s photo was chosen as the winner from 25 nominated images, which received a combined 76,000 votes from across the world.

He told the Sussex Wildlife Trust in December that the photograph was taken outside his house in the English town and seaside resort of St Leonards-on-Sea, where there is a badger sett near to him.

The photographer, who uses his work “to help a number of conservation projects both abroad and in UK,” explained that he intended to warn of the threat of badgers becoming “locally extinct in several parts of England” with his photograph.

Wood took aim at the Labour government for “not halt[ing]” badger culling in England, which has been used as a means of combatting the disease bovine TB for a decade despite a lack of evidence that it is effective.

According to the government, which has committed to ending culling within five years, over 278,000 cattle have been compulsorily slaughtered and 230,000 badgers killed in efforts to curtail the disease’s spread. Wood has described the practice as a "a national disgrace" and told the BBC: "I would swap this award immediately for the government to rescind all existing badger culling licenses."

His photo and others by commended finalists can be seen at London’s Natural History Museum until June 29.

Image Credit: Cloudtail the Snow Leopard.?License.

And that's it for this week. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at [email protected]

For now, that's the Weekend Box officially closed.

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