What is the G20?

Many of you have probably heard of the G20 summit being held these 2 days in Argentina. However, some of you, like me, probably weren’t too sure about the specifics of this meeting. So like always, I decided to do some research and will now be sharing what I’ve found with you.

The G20 Summit is a meeting between 20 of the world’s most important industrialized or developing countries to discuss the state of the global economy. The invited regions are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union.

Something that surprised me was that this event isn’t too old either. It debuted in 2008 in response to the financial crisis and was held in Washington DC. After that it was held twice a year for two years; in Pittsburg and London for 2009 and in Toronto and Seoul in 2010. France hosted the summit in 2011 and afterwards, the leaders have met once every year, with this year being in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The 20 Participating Members of the G20 Summit

Now the important question we all have is, “how did this year’s summit go?” So far, all 20 members have managed to agree on the reformation of the WTO. All 20 support multilateral trade but they also agree that the World Trade Organization needs to be fixed through “the necessary reform of the WTO to improve its functioning.”

However, a final agreement couldn’t be made on the Paris Accord with the US being the only one unwilling to support it. This time around the US seems to be unable to agree on many topics and according to Thomas Bernes of Canada, “this is clearly a retrograde step forced by the United States intransigence.”

Despite how difficult it was for any further agreements to be made, Trump and Xi Jinping did have their dinner together and shortly after, Trump’s top economic advisor stated that the meeting went “very well”. Both leaders headed into dinner with high hopes and the Chinese state TV later said that “no additional tariffs will be imposed after January 1, and negotiations between the two sides will continue.”

Despite the refusal of the US to agree on multiple topics, the G20 still has successfully deescalated the current state of global trade by agreeing on the reformation of the WTO and with the seemingly positive outcome of the meeting between Xi Jinping and Trump. Hopefully, current conflicts will be quickly resolved after this summit. 

It’s final: The Crown Prince assassinated Khashoggi

 

 And why do I call it final? Well, the CIA has determined and concluded that last month, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of the journalist Khashoggi in Istanbul, which contradicts largely with the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved.

Mohammed’s brother, Khalid bin Salman (Saudi ambassador for the US), told Khashoggi to go to Istanbul to pick up some marriage/divorce papers. Yes, Khashoggi was divorcing and planned to marry a Turkish woman. Anyway, the message was through a call in which the CIA intercepted. It is not clear whether Khalid knew of Mohammed’s plans at the time, but it definitely contributed.

The fact of the matter is that Mohammed is probably not going to lose his position and will remain the heir to the throne. A US official offered, “The general agreement is that he is likely to survive,” and that his position as a king in the future is “taken for granted.”

The public Saudi prosecutor accused a band of operatives sent to Istanbul to retrieve Khashoggi. The group forcibly restrained and injected him with a drug, which caused an overdose and death. The prosecutor then charged 11 people, in which five of them received the death penalty. However, as these criminals were ordered by the Crown Prince to do so, I believe that the Saudi’s will replace them with some lowly prisoners in secret. Just imagine the conversation they are having at the moment.

“I have to kill you guys now to not look bad, thanks for helping though!” – Mohammed.

One of the pieces of evidence that the CIA gathered is a recording from the Turks sent to multiple countries including Germany, France and the United Kingdom; the tape was placed in the Saudi consulate. According the officials in multiple countries, it shows that Khashoggi was killed moments within entering. There are other proofs released that I’m not going to go over.

Nobody is absolutely sure why Khashoggi was targeted by the Crown Prince; only theories and speculations exist, including one from the CIA. It essentially is: Khashoggi was supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood, but the national security advisers considered the Brotherhood a threat.

Why do you think that he was killed?

Russia’s Illegal “Whale Jail”

Today, a Russian newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, reported that over a hundred whales (11 orca and 90 beluga) were captured and held in undersized “whale jails”. They were supposedly meant to be sold to Chinese theme parks, but this is strictly forbidden by the international law, which only allows whales to be used for scientific, cultural and educational purposes. Each whale is thought to be sold for around $6,000,000 on the Chinese black market. There are four companies thought to be responsible: LLC Oceanarium DV, LLC Afalina, LLC Bely Kit and LLC Sochi Dolphinarium.

Here is a video of a whale being transported to a tank:

Are the Saudis a Real Threat?

As most of you may know, the Saudis are suspected of kidnapping/killing a Saudi journalist called Jamal Khashoggi. While the Saudi royalty strongly deny any relation to the misfortunes, there are people who say that the General Intelligence Presidency (Saudi Arabian intelligence service) the mission to abduct him. But throughout this mess, one thing stood clear: If the US meddled too much within the affair, the Saudis were going to retaliate. They claim that “The Saudi economy has vital and influential roles for the global economy,” and that they are not afraid to take actions. But exactly how much power do they really have?

Saudi Arabia is the world’s biggest oil exporter, so their threats could cause the world market’s oil value to lose around $33 billion. This means that the already high oil costs would shoot up sky high. (I’m honestly no good at economics so bare with me.) But by halting the selling of oil, they would lose ridiculous amounts of income. It’s basically a “I’ll take you down along with me” mentality.

The thing is, Saudi Arabia does not have many strong allies. China is already in bad terms since they are fighting the Saudis for Tibet, which currently is in the Chinese possession. Russia is allied with Saudi rivals, like China. The other major force would be India, which would probably try to stay neutral and not risk angering the United States.

But what do you think? Should we be worried about acting on the Saudi, or should we do a thorough investigation?