Crown prince arming: Trump sells jets to MBS
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.6 • 3.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2025
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Muhammad bin Salman’s first visit to the White House in seven years earned the Saudi crown prince new weapons, giant tech deals and a burnished reputation. Our correspondent explains Trump’s warm welcome. Why gay rights in Hong Kong are going backwards. And how snail farms help Britons dodge tax.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist. |
| 0:10.2 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:13.2 | I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:14.3 | And I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:15.7 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:21.6 | Thank you. provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:30.6 | Hong Kong used to have a reputation for being one of its regions more enlightened places, accepting of people of all kinds. But as its government aligns more and more with the mainland, |
| 0:35.6 | its LGBT communities are feeling |
| 0:38.2 | an unfamiliar pressure. |
| 0:39.9 | And we seem to be on a bit of a sluggish trail at the intelligence. |
| 0:45.8 | We recently run a segment about snail racing in rural Britain. |
| 0:49.6 | Now we've got one about shell companies running fake mollusk farms in empty offices. It's a real snail biter. |
| 1:01.4 | But first... |
| 1:07.0 | It was an effusive welcome. |
| 1:14.1 | American President Donald Trump greeted Saudi crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman at the White |
| 1:19.2 | House for the first time in seven years. |
| 1:21.9 | We have an extremely respected man in the Oval Office today and a friend of mine for a long time, a very good friend of mine. |
| 1:30.3 | I'm very proud of the job he's done. What he's done is incredible in terms of human rights and everything else. |
| 1:36.3 | That warm reception yesterday was a stark change from the cold shoulder, bin Salman, or MBS as he's known, was given after the murder |
| 1:45.7 | of a Saudi journalist in 2018. The Crown Prince left the meeting in Washington, replete with |
| 1:51.9 | weapons, tech deals and a fantastically burnished reputation. The meeting between Mohammed bin Salman |
| 2:00.0 | and Donald Trump, to me, |
... |
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