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Hello and welcome to the intelligence from the Economist. I'm your host, Oret Ogunbi.

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

Asia's longest serving leader is relinquishing power and growing increasingly paranoid about

securing his legacy. But support for his carefully orchestrated succession plans is far from universal.

Sweden is building a brand new city by taking a new school approach to an old school material.

Could this be the future of sustainable construction?

First up though.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS as he's often known, is currently at the

centre of a well-wind of diplomacy. This week he's hosting Turkey's newly re-elected president,

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as he begins a three-day tour of the Gulf.

At the weekend, the de facto Saudi ruler met Japan's Prime Minister Qishida Fumio in Jeddah

to discuss cooperation on energy supplies. And just days ago, it was reported that MBS has been

invited for an official visit to Britain later this year. For a while, it looked like Saudi Arabia

was out in the diplomatic cold. The killing of the exile US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018,

by agents presumed to be working for the Crown Prince, sparked indignation the world over.

But now, America is trying to work up a deal with the country to cement one of the

Middle East's most complex relationships. Joe Biden knows what he wants, which is for Saudi Arabia

and Israel to make their relationship public. Greg Karlstrom is the economist's

Middle East correspondent. They've had a discreet relationship for the better part of a decade now,

...