all were critical of the saudi government, and there is evidence they were abducted and flown to saudi in the penthouse of this luxury hotel, a saudi prince is preparing to visit the powerful relatives. it is a meeting that will change his life forever. sultan bin turki bin abdulaziz has been publicly criticising the saudi royal family. now he has been invited for a conversation. early in the morning, prince sultan is driven to a palace on the outskirts of geneva. it belongs to his uncle, king fahd of saudi arabia. prince abdulaziz bin fahd is the king's favourite son. he has invited his cousin to breakfast. they are joined by sheikh saleh al—sheikh, the saudi minister of islamic affairs. abdulaziz asks sultan to return to saudi arabia. he says he will be protected and everything will be resolved. sultan refuses. abdulaziz excuses himself to make a phone call. then, al—sheikh also leaves the room. sultan is left alone. suddenly masked men rush in. they beat sultan and handcuff him. 0ne plunges a needle into his neck. unconscious, sultan is rushed to geneva airport, where a plane is wai

modern saudis and traditional saudis and i think it's very visible even when you are in now. or in more of the inland areas and so i do. anticipate that there will be definite tension which is why it's very important for the media to play a very important role as i mean if you feel my life for a matter of us give us an idea well though some of those visible signs that you would see that perhaps not everyone is aware of terms of differences between real object the being you know on the west coast and we all being in the east of saudi arabia well i think generally speaking i mean obviously there are conservatives and liberals and we are as well but if i were to generalize out say the cheaters is more liberal in their lifestyles in there they're just saying the compounds that they where the host. you know the lifestyle there are a lot more open a lot more flexible for families and as opposed to more traditional lifestyles that where women cover completely including their faces and their hands and there are there's a great greater restriction for them to be able to get scholarshi

society between moderate saudis and traditional saudis and i think it's very visible even when you are in now. or in more of the inland areas and so i do. anticipate that there will be definite tension which is why it's very important for the media to play a very important role as i mean if you fill my life for a matter of us give us an idea well though some of those visible signs that you would see that perhaps not everyone is aware of terms of differences between riyadh the being you know on the west coast and riyadh being in the east of saudi arabia well i think generally speaking i mean obviously there are conservatives and liberals and realities well but if i were to generalize and say that you does is more liberal in their lifestyle in there they're just saying the compounds where the host. you know the lifestyle there are a lot more open a lot more flexible for families and as opposed to more traditional lifestyles that where women cover completely including their faces and their hands and there are there's a. great a greater restriction for them to be able to get scholarships a

i sat down in front of the saudi official., as he was one of the quote—unquote "flight attendants" on the plane. he told us that we were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that he was sorry for the inconvenience. i wasn't inconvenienced, i was kidnapped. i was held against my will, in a country i didn't choose to go to. it was an astonishing situation. together with prince sultan, around 18 foreign nationals had been kidnapped and taken to saudi arabia. they had had their phones and passports confiscated, and were held by the saudi military. there has been no news of prince sultan since these events. his lawyer told the swiss prosecutor what had happened. he hoped something might finally be done about sultan's earlier complaint. as far as i know, he has done nothing to seek to get access to prince sultan in saudi arabia, or any of the people against whom prince sultan complained for the 2003 abduction. instead, the swiss lawyer said he intended to suspend the prosecution, because prince sultan was not available.

this is a historic day for saudi society for men and women. for years some saudi women have gone behind the wheel as part of a campaign with global support on social media. this activist lost her job when she was caught others have gone to jail now they are celebrating their victory. saudi law and forces a strict form of islam known as well harbison women have to obey strict dress codes they can't associate with unrelated men if they want to work travel access health care they need the consent or accompaniment of a male guardian but slowly things are changing on saturday women were allowed for the first time into a national stadium for celebrations marking the kingdom's anniversary the movie's part of a program headed by the crown prince to modernize society and saudi women are already wealthy well educated and ambitious and. women are at all levels there in the government advisory council that duct is why women are in big positions so why shouldn't we join the men that matter most to our nation. that boldness would suggest that saudi women wi

if you look at saudi, and a plus rated country, versus other countries, saudi still has a little bitider leverage. the rating is in the 80's whereas korea and malaysia are in the xts. but they investors are still a little skeptical. they still want to see continuing progress. any reform plan genuinely but also fixed some kind of opposition from people who may have a different position. yousef: coming up, women will finally get to drive in saudi arabia. we did have the implications for the economy and society at large. with one of the most influential women in the kingdom. this is rumored syria♪ -- this is bloomberg. ♪ yousef: possibly the biggest middle east story was saudi arabia's decision to relax its ban on women drivers. it could have wide ranging implications. the kingdom is the last country on earth to stop women getting from behind the wheel. we spoke to our guest. about this. guest: this speaks to what it means to be a saudi and the 21st century. the leadership has decided this is an issue they wanted to take off the table and allow women to full access to transportation rig

arabia thousands in saudi praised him online for representing qatar in saudi arabia unlike the amir however many in qatar said that the story was a publicity stunt by the saudis this user here saying abella bin ali is not political and has a farm in northern saudi arabia it seems he was invited and taken taken into jeddah with the media ready now members of the amir's family and qatar took to social media on that same day to reaffirm their allegiance to qatar's leader this picture along with a poem to the emir was posted by his sister if you're following any of these hashtags we just mentioned do let us know you can join in on the conversation using our hash tag a.j. newsprint thank you lee i just really quickly don't forget the all the latest updates page down to zero dot com it does keep you in the loop twenty four seven always updated should be your first stop when you want to keep in touch with the story. bonnie it is colorful it's provoking if it is designed to show the very personal toll the gulf crisis is having on the people of color we're talking graffiti art the work of fi

censoring social media saudi arabia or to snap chat to ban edges either should social media companies bow down to any country's political agenda and who decides where to draw the line between freedom of expression and silencing the media this is inside story. we're . we're with all. hello welcome to the program has them seek a snap chat is blocking al-jazeera content in saudi arabia more than seven million saudis use snapchat every day it is one of the most popular markets for the social media platform in the middle east now the company says it's blocked the discovery channel that's after a request from the saudi government on the ground zero violates local cybercrime rules the al-jazeera t.v. channel as well as its news web site also blocked in saudi arabia and the united arab emirates in response to criticism of censorship snap incorporated responded by saying we make an effort to comply with local laws in the countries where we operate as a snap chat content was as popular in saudi arabia as sky news arabia and a lot of am i just it has condemned the band as an affront to free spee

guest: it is also a great question because saudis and the wider use community in saudi arabia, whichomprises now 65% below the age of 29, they have to also realized the need to have the right skills and be actively looking. come in 80r youth needs to be educating themselves in order to participate. at the same time, the private sector needs to do its job as well. they need to adjust to the new realities whereby they need to hire saudis that have these special skills. it is a reality check from both sides, supply and demand. the supply side needs to realize the only way going forward is for saudi arabia that engages outh.its y traditionally the country had relatively high unemployment, similarly to the case of france which had high unemployment as well, historically. i think that 12.3%, 12.6%, you will see that figure playing out for a few years before it adjusts to a new reality. so i am not to bend forward. of course i would be worried if saudi arabia had unemployment at 20%, that i think for the first two years or three years, going forward you will see unemployment at this level g

that boldness would suggest that saudi women will carry on the fight for greater rights. well joining us now for more on the story is not. she's a journalist who's reported extensively from saudi arabia thanks for coming in this morning. activists have been pushing for a woman's right to drive in saudi arabia for decades why is this happening now well in fact it's happening now because it has to happen and there is no chance another for the royal family nor for the system of the government to push it more and to postpone this issue and the saudi society. is also a strong female society even if we don't realize this the number of very much very well educated and vicious females is really high and they are pushing towards. their role in the society a quarter million of young saudis are studying a brode funded by the government more than sixty percent of them are females who drive outside the country yet so this brings them with thoughts back that the system and the conservative part of the system cannot sustain anymore ok what about the women in saudi arabia those who maybe

some month ago saudi arabia is source number one of terrorism, after he's elected says saudi arabia is my partner number one. therefore iran believe me they everyone we talk in iran they believe the u.s. saudi arabia deal all behind the terrorist groups. and the u.s. does not want isis to die. and they -- you can find a lot of documents in the u.s. side also. you have hilary hearing congress say that the u.s. had role from isis. you remember. and everybody knows about september 11. you have not seen one single iran yan to be involved in any terrorist activity in u.s. the terrorist country number one is iraq. therefore, this is something very important. there is no difference in iran, under regional issues. iranens are. they view the u.s., saudi arabia, arabs, the same. there is no difference. on trump you're right, there are some iranens they trump vs. hilary because they believe if trump is elected it would under mine the u.s. and this would be dangerous to iran. trump is doing the same. do we need anything more? >> i this i that covers it. i'll come back to you. you should react to s

society modernize saudi saudi society has to modernize that's why there is this plan of twenty thirty because the rich oil contract today has to water nice otherwise you cannot only depend on. why twenty thirty they're going to be less oid so they have to have to modernizing in social structure and economy structure in order to survive and you have a very young generation now this younger generation is knowing what's happening on the go over and knowing what's going on say you cannot tell them just sit by side and we're the one who doing everything you have to integrate them into society and not only the social side but on the other structure in schools in working so things going on and they will keep going on there and this could be the very first step yes ok jeff are of dual korean thanks so much you're right i'm again it's to thailand now where the country's top court has ruled that the former prime minister yingluck shinawatra is guilty of negligence she was sentenced to five years in prison if you look was not present for the hearing she reportedly fled the country in august when

and also lack of trust between the saudi allies saudi arabia and the u.a.e. and the yemeni government in aden it's clear that president hadi has had numerous issues with the. government authorities in aden so this. the longer this war continues the more complicated it will get all sides need to give in to each other reach a solution to what is need to hand over weapons and retreat from the main cities which they and nationally accepted to do according to the previous peace talks in kuwait with the u.n. envoy so there are strides how they were worse right happening in the last peace talks in kuwait but again we're after one year of no talks many things reached a stalemate and this only heard the solution more time do you are response and i was i was going to say that the one thing i agree with ninety nine percent of what the guest has said but there's only one thing that i disagree with he said the issue should not be as to applying blame to which size but to find a solution i argue that the absence of a solution is because we have not applied the correct blam

now, you may think that it is saudi kings, saudi monarchs, princes, that have been holding the countryyears. it's not them. it's the religious conservatives, and some of the views they've expressed as to why women shouldn't drive have upset a lot of people. they have said they're too stupid to drive, or it will burn their ovaries. or, very popular among religious conservatives, they say that it will lead to chaos and depravity, men and women getting together and having trysts in the backseats of cars, or going off on dates together in cars. there probably will be a bit of that. but the most important impact here is that it liberalises, it liberates saudi women economically, because they no longer have to depend on these imported — these 800,000 imported chauffeurs from indonesia, philippines, india and other countries. and families can't afford it. you might think that saudi arabia, because it is a rich country, that everybody is rich. they are not. a lot of them really struggle on small budgets, and they can't afford this. so this is a huge day for saudi arabia, and it will allow wome

government and the saudi insisted that the. government that they they don't want any international investigation team to come into yemen and this show you who carry the most the responsibility of the death that's happening in yemen and saudi when they were in control for six months before. led coalition we didn't hard like the start of eight and all these things it has come straight away after this all right let coalition war in yemen because they have destroyed all yemen airport ports and you know. they are the one of our responsibility i'm afraid we are out of time so let's thank our guests for joining us in this show for same of the heidi. and thank you to forging as always you can see the show again any time if you head over to our web site dot com for further discussion let's go over to our facebook pages facebook dot com forward slash inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter the handle is an. inside story from me sam is a ban on the whole thing here for now let's go vote. great. blanket coverage follows

traditional saudis and i think it's very visible even when you are in now. or in more of the inland areas and so i do. anticipate that there will be definite tension which is why it's very important for the media to play a very important role as i mean if you fill my life from our viewers give us an idea well though some of those visible signs that. you would see that perhaps not everyone is aware of terms of differences between job done real job the being you know on the west coast and we all being in the east of saudi arabia well i think generally speaking i mean obviously there are conservatives and liberals and realises well but if i were to generalize out say that you this is new to be more liberal in their lifestyles in there they're just saying the compounds that they where they host. you know the lifestyle there are a lot more open a lot more flexible for families and as opposed to more traditional lifestyles that where women cover completely including their faces and their hands and there are there's a great greater restriction for them to be able t

they say saudi arabia saudi monies, gcc monies, the source of isis. you hear president trump before elections saying saudi arabia is the source of -- number one source of terrorism. obama curated isis after elections, says saudi arabia is my main strategic partner. you know, we really don't understand what's going on in this country some month ago says saudi arabia is source number one of terrorism. amp he's elected says saudi arabia is my partner number one. therefore, iran, believe me, they -- everyone you talk to in tehran, they believe the u.s., saudi arabia, they are all behind the terrorist groups. and the u.s. does not want isis to die. and they -- you can find a lot of documents on the u.s. side, also. you have hillary hearing at congress saying that the u.s. had the role founding isis -- finding -- and taliban. you remember? and everybody knows about 9/11. you have not seen one single iranian to be involved in any terrorist activities in the europe and the u.s. but terrorist country number one is iran. therefore, this is something very import

how does this move saudi arabian women's rights forward ? saudi arabian women's rights forward?important. women are now able to drive themselves to school, the university, the hospitals, to work. the nation used to stop when children are going out of school. fathers used to go out and pick up children from school and now the nation will operate very normally. it isa nation will operate very normally. it is a celebration of... for men and women. it is a family issue. so it is really a big deal. it is a big deal and a major celebration for men and women in saudi arabia. for you, personally, how are you planning to celebrate today? are you planning to go behind the wheel this morning?” will wait untiljune and have my license and i will be one of the first people getting that licence. the official licence in saudi arabia and be driving on the street. that isa and be driving on the street. that is a big deal. i will definitely be one of the first women applying for the licence and i'm excited! 0ver over to france. a man who'd been in a vegetative state for 15 years has begun to show

gives the saudi's and it uae.rump is in there cap and they can resist the pressure coming out of the defense department to negotiate and compromise. we will discuss this in more detail in a few minutes. andrew, thank you for joining us. always great to have you on to bring clarity and to what is turning into a very personal and complex situation. the four we go, one feature on the bloomberg we would like to bring to your attention is our interactive tv function at tv . you will not only be able to watch us live, but you could see previous interviews and dive into any bloomberg functions we talk about. you can also become part of the conversation by sending us instant messages during our show. if you think you have a better analogy than andrew's game of chicken to describe what is going on with qatar and the gcc, send it our way. that is for bloomberg subscribers only. check it out i tv . ♪ tracy: this is "bloomberg markets: middle east." graham griffith from control risk is still with us. i want to talk wi

conservative kingdom is finally going to let women strong why the saudi arabia is the only country in the world where women were banned from driving activists have been fighting for decades to get this morning to try. also coming up germany's chancellor is under pressure on all sides as angela merkel seeks to build a stable government the leader up for variances her party says things have got to change following the conservatives huge election losses. plus france's president calls for more european unity among all my own once a joint budget for the euro zone and a shared military intervention force that how it's like and you go down in europe. and sarah holland welcome to the show it's good to have you with us so many women are about to join the entire rest of the world and being able to legally drive a car saudi state media says king solomon has issued a new decree officially ending the much criticized ban on women drivers media reports say the ultra conservative kingdom is due to introduce the change in june of next year. it comes just days after saudi women were allowed to take par

and saudi arabia i would be willing to do so the nation of qatar unfortunately has historically been a funder of terrorism. at a very high level donald trump made those remarks back in june when four countries in the region first cut diplomatic and transport links with the gulf nation saudi arabia egypt bahrain and the accused qatar of supporting terrorism. you ass has its largest air base in the middle east and qatar around eleven thousand american troops are stationed there just weeks after welcoming the blockade president trump approved a fighter jet deal with the gulf kingdom worth twelve billion dollars. well let's bring in the mohammad marandi a professor of politics university welcome to the program. first let's look at what president trump has been claiming claims the tall crisis is easy to solve let's have a quick listen to him. i can help mediate between carter and in particular the u.s. and saudi arabia i would be willing to do so and i think you'd have a deal worked out very quickly i think it's up to the school to get solved fairly easily ok so you have a quick listen to

he worked very closely together pakistan saudi arabia. yes well i would say and i would say they both have their own sort of individual problems and you reference them by attack that almost led to a war between india and pakistan and pakistan has long supported in a number of extremists but that's a separate topic to to answer your question about saudi arabia you know the fact that they that the attackers were for some saudi arabia it was not a big deal to me what is a big deal is that saudi arabia for its own reasons to try to maintain its own legitimacy as a country has basically allowed idiology extremist ideology in the form of one hop as them to flourish and has been an exporter has been a funder has been in general cheerleader for a idiology that has over time come to be the root. a set of beliefs that many who are extremists. believe in so i think you know i think saudi arabia had a pretty bad bad record and in syria we would have to agree that saudi arabia encoder and other countries funded anti syrian forces and of course assad's

censoring social media saudi arabia or a snap chat to ban edges either should social media companies down down to any country's political agenda and who decides where to draw the line between freedom of expression and silencing the media this is inside story. we're . we're we're in the. i'll welcome to the program has them seek a snap chat is blocking al-jazeera content in saudi arabia more than seven million saudis use snapchat every day it is one of the most popular markets for the social media platform in the middle east now the company says it's blocked the discovery channel that's after a request from the saudi government on the grounds of violates local cybercrime rules the edges in a t.v. channel as well as its news website also blocked in saudi arabia and the united arab emirates in response to criticism of sense the ship snap incorporated responded by saying we make an effort to comply with local laws in the countries where we operate as a snap chat content was as popular in saudi arabia as sky news arabia and a lot of am i just that it has condemned the band as an affront t

where the saudis and the u.s. on the consulate stopped just south borders so what's happening is because you know in a civil war where you have people fighting on the ground places like unisa red cross can go in and isolate an area and create some sort of protections or safety or medical care or food or stuff you don't have that in yemen because it's basically an air strike and the saudis have control of the airways so what's happening is there's no area or safe place for a lot of the relief agencies and the aid to go in and help these people and so internally these people are getting absolutely no help whatsoever like for example in syria there are areas where because it is a civil war in a lot of it's on the ground there's areas where unicef has gone in is secured the. and is able to provide food and aid that's not happening in yemen which i think is making it much much worse so when these refugees fleet where do they go what is their path to safety they are no longer allowed to go into saudi arabia in the begin

and to postpone this issue and the saudi society. is also a strong female society even if we don't realize this the number of very much very well educated and vicious females is really high and they are pushing towards. their own in this society a quarter million of her young saudis are studying a brode funded by the government more than sixty percent of them are females who drive outside the country yet so this brings them with thoughts back that the system and the conservative part of the system cannot sustain anymore ok what about the women in saudi arabia those who maybe have never driven abroad are they going to be able to just start driving next june when the royal saudi houses that that it's going to be allowed to be implemented how easy will it be for women to actually exercise their right to drive in saudi arabia at this point first of all i would like to congratulate this how do women for this step and in fact the king for this decision still it's clear that it's not going to be so easy the first step is to have a committee

with the date of the news coming to you live from berlin a surprise decision in saudi arabia state media says the ultra conservative kingdom will finally allow women to drive saudi arabia is the only country on earth where women are banned from driving and activists been finding for years to get that one overturned also coming up on the program germany's chancellor is under pressure from all saw mrs marrable six to build a stable government the leader of her bulgarian sister party says things have to change following the conservatives huge election losses. and just two days after germany's right wing any of these celebrated huge election gains the party's co-leaders says she'll resign. us france's president calls for more european unity among a lot calling once a joint budget for the eurozone and a shared military intervention force but how is that going to go down elsewhere in the end you find out coming up. i'm sorry welcome to the show it's good to have you with us it's a ride around the world that most people take for granted but women in saudi arabia have. never been allowed to driv

this is a historic day for saudi society for men and women and we can now say at last saudi women will be able to drive alone but significant in a country with a male guardianship system that requires women to have the approval of a male relative the decisions on education employment marriage travel plans and medical treatment let driving issue has been one small part of a much larger issue of discrimination against women the big part of course is the male system which is the biggest impediment for women's rights in the kingdom so while that still exists driving will only do so much for women's freedom for the relatively young prince mohammed bin solomon allowing women to drive could perhaps be the most visible sign that he's bringing change to saudi arabia. their history of demanding the right to drive is very long it began in one nine hundred ninety led by forty seven women followed by many campaigns now thank god we have reached the fruits of those demands with these successful reforms. women one be allowed to drive for another eight months the government says it needs time to prepa

in the saudis are freaked out about this.ing every effort to derail this thing and try to get the law changeded so they can't be sued. amy: we have to leave it there but we will continue to follow it. andrew cockburn, we will link to your piece "crime and punishment." that does it for today's broadcast. one gonzalez contending his speaking tour. you can check democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments t to . so debate coming to from violence and live on facebook. since the cold war his german farm policies. sirius to in such a volatile period north korea and the new trump administration icy relations with russia and turkey. the failure to

this is a historic day for saudi society for men and women. for years some saudi women have gone behind the wheel as part of a campaign with global support on social media. this activist lost her job when she was caught others have gone to jail now they are celebrating their victory. saudi law and forces a strict form of islam known as well her business women have to obey strict dress codes they can't associate with unrelated men if they want to work travel access health care they need the consent or accompaniment of a male guardian. but slowly things are changing on saturday women were allowed for the first time in to a national stadium for celebrations marking the kingdom's anniversary the movie's part of a program headed by the crown prince to modernize society and saudi women are already wealthy well educated and ambitious. women at all levels there in the government advisory council that doctors ny women are in big positions so why shouldn't we join the men that matter most to our nation. that boldness would suggest that saudi women will

of the saudi arabia priorities?eporter: we will see. it remains to be seen how far this will go. there is clearly dialogue. when it comes to oil policy, energy policy, opec, they talk. they have common interests. it is not like the russians and the saudis stop talking to each other and say, you are our enemy, or whenever. the does seem to be an opening. the saudis to see the russians as potential partners to find a resolution to the syria crisis. maybe not exactly the way they wanted to have it, but better syriaaving iran dominates for the foreseeable future. shery: how much of it is serious russia ast steppingresident trump back and saying it is all about islamic state? reporter: i think it was a policy even under the obama administration. ispping back from the rebels more of accepting the reality that with the russian intervention, the assad regime has gained the upper hand. basically all of this is really reflecting the military reality on the ground. if you look at the map, you see the control of the assad force

cannot have economic restructuring and reforms without having social reforms and today the women in saudi arabia they are educated they are the number of graduate of women in saudi arabia arabia is bigger than the number of men who are graduating they are going outside of the concert to study their knowing more about their rights their knowing their rising their voice we just know in the in the video the woman said like why i cannot do it so there's kind of limit three to reach now where everyone is causing why it's not any more reasonable and it's not any more and can be justified why woman is not allowed to drive and i think it's a starting process into something in you but it's the first step the first step and there would be an important economic factor in this exam twenty thirty exams there's been a lot of reactions on social media let's take a look of that if we could saudi women's rights activist sharif who helped start a saudi women's right to drive campaigns that is just the start and long standing and just laws they've always considered saudi women miners who are not trusted to

, so the saudis see it as a direct threat.this battle there are rights and wrongs of both sides. charlie: how will it in? -- get end? guest: it will take a long time. president has said, oh, this is easy. this is something i can do. the west and the europeans tend to think that it is a squabble. can you just get along? your political unity is being affected, your financial unity is being affected. they say it is much deeper. they feel threatened by qatar, but it is equally true -- take the one phrase president trump used time and time again in his speech and some ways , "sovereignty." qatar sees themselves as a sovereign nation. the saudis and egyptians and emirati don't like it. president trump got the emir of qatar and the crown prince of saudi arabia to talk to each other. apparently the call didn't go that badly. but the way they played it out, it just set off sparks again because they then presented it as being different. charlie: thank you for coming. great to have you here. chief international correspondent for the bbc.

in the saudis are freaked out about this.ing every effort to derail this thing and try to get the law changed so they can't be sued. amy: we have to leave it there but we will continue to follow it. andrew cockburn, we will link to your piece "crime and punishment." that does it for today's broadcast. one gonzalez contending his speaking tour. you can check democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or >> i am lidia bastianich, and teaching you about italian food has always been my passion. i want to always make it prettier and better and tastier, but this doesn't need a single thing. now it's time to learn the basics of the italian kitchen. so join me and master all things italian. tutti a tavola a mangiare! >> at cento fine foods, we're dedicated to preserving the culinary heritage of authentic italian foods by offering over 100 specialty italian products for the american kitchen. cento -- trust your family with