Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist.

In New York, I'm John Fassman.

An in London, I'm Jason Palma.

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

Tesla is the world's biggest maker of electric vehicles, but a Chinese firm called BYD may

soon challenge its supremacy, setting the stage for a competition that could shape car

markets around the world.

And you might not worry much about flushing a wet wipe down the toilet.

Many are allegedly biodegradable, right?

It's not as simple as that.

There are so many going down British pipes that whole islands of them are forming in the

country's rivers.

Ew.

First up though.

In November, a pop-up amusement park called Boulevard World opened to fireworks in Riyadh.

It's a sort of Epcot center for the Middle East.

Visitors can travel through bits of the park designed to look like different countries.

France, China, India, Morocco, all clustered around a man-made lake.

They can hop on nearby amusement park rides or head to attractions like a life-size monopoly

game.

It's the type of event that was once rare in the Saudi capital, which has long been ruled

under an austere brand of Islam.

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