MUST-READS

• MERS
  Study finds little spread of MERS-CoV in Saudi households

  The standard thinking on MERS-CoV is that it doesn't spread very easily, other than in healthcare settings with weak infection control precautions. A new study looking for transmission of the virus in the households of Saudi Arabian patients in 2013 seems to fit well with that view, though it has some limitations.

• Oil
  Saudi crude exports fall in June as domestic demand rises

  Saudi crude exports fell in June to their lowest levels in almost three years as oil use in the country’s power sector rose and local refineries processed high volumes, official data showed.

• ISIS
  Iraq and Syria pose Saudi dilemma – failed states or Iran proxies

  What the Al Saud dynasty most wants in both countries is a stable government with strong Sunni representation that could act as a bulwark both against what they see as Iranian expansionism and a Sunni militant ideology that threatens their own rule.

  • Washington Post - Fareed Zakaria: A second Sunni Awakening?
  • Washington Post - Ignatius: Can Saudi Arabia help combat the Islamic State?
• Gaza
  After more than 2,100 deaths, the Gaza war ends where it began

  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel had dealt Hamas “the greatest blow since the organization’s founding.” But in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader there, praised the 1.8 million residents of Gaza as “the true heroes.” It was Haniyeh’s first public appearance since the war began seven weeks ago.

• Coffee
  Saudi Arabia biggest coffee consuming country in world | Economy | Saudi Gazette

  The study showed also that the consumption of coffee per capita amounts to 3 kg per year. According to the same statistics, Saudi people spend annually more than SR1 billion for the preparation of coffee and its components. The Kingdom imports on an annual basis more than 26,000 tons of cardamom, ginger and saffron with a total value exceeding SR4.5 billion, while the number of coffee shops in Saudi Arabia increases more than 10 percent per year

• Islamic State
  Why the Islamic State Is Mostly a Network of Roads

  ISIS territory in Iraq and Syria tends to be described as “swaths.” The estimated size of these swaths, which ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in June, varies widely in reports, from 12,000 square miles—”an area the size of Belgium,” per The Wall Street Journal—to 35,000 square miles, or “an area the size of Jordan,” as George Packer wrote this week in The New Yorker. Whatever else the caliphate is, by these estimates of territorial size at least, it’s starting to look more and more like a state.

• Housing
  Over 600,000 Saudis Eligible For Housing Aid -Ministry

  More than 600,000 Saudi Arabian families have been found eligible for housing aid under a new scheme designed to ease a shortage of homes which has depressed living standards and is politically sensitive for the government. Out of a total of 960,397 applications under the scheme, known as ESKAN, 620,889 were found eligible, the Ministry of Housing said in a statement on Thursday.

• Afghanistan
  U.N. says ‘not possible’ to finish Afghan vote audit by September 2

  Afghanistan's U.N. representative told President Hamid Karzai on Thursday it was "not possible" to finish an audit of a disputed election by Sept. 2, when Karzai had hoped to see a new leader inaugurated, Karzai's office said.

  The United Nations is supervising the audit of votes from a run-off ballot between the two candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani. They have both claimed victory in the election intended to mark the country's first democratic transfer of power.

• SAMA
  SAMA net foreign assets rise to $730 billion

  Saudi Arabia’s M3 money supply growth accelerated to a three-month high of 13.2 percent year-on-year in July from 12.3 percent in the previous month, central bank data showed on Wednesday. Bank lending growth to the private sector slowed to a three-month low of 11.8 percent in July from 12.3 percent in June.

• Petrochemicals
  Saudi Sahara Petrochemical’s subsidiary restarts output after glitch

  Saudi Arabia's Sahara Petrochemical Co said on Wednesday its subsidiary had fixed a technical fault at a utilities unit and was now working on restarting production.

  Sahara, which ended merger talks with Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) in June, said Aug. 17 a shutdown in polypropylene output had occurred at Al Waha Petrochemicals which could reduce third-quarter profit at the parent firm by nearly 9 million riyals ($2.4 million).

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