Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

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

Changes to Saudi Arabia's so-called guardianship laws

might suggest that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to advance women's rights.

It is a modernization push, but it's mostly aimed at foreigners and filled with contradictions.

And there was a time that parents and grandparents didn't really get Facebook or why youngsters wanted to be on it.

Now that the elders are there in force, the kids are staying away.

That's okay. Facebook also owns the platforms they're flocking to.

But first...

In Hong Kong this weekend, yet more mass protests and a worrying rise in violence.

50 days on from the first huge marches, the territories, nameless, leaderless protest movement is escalating.

Tens of thousands took to the streets, chanting slogans such as, free Hong Kong.

And this is the revolution of our times.

Amongst the protesters, the mood was defiant.

Why are we here?

Because we stand and protect the freedom that we deserve.

And I think the whole movement, just showed the world that Hong Kong is not China.

Today, China's mainland government held a press conference in Beijing to give its response, an extremely rare move.

It's very unusual for the central government to, if you like, speak for the Hong Kong government.

It does away with the fiction that Hong Kong is a kind of perfectly self-governing territory.

David Renny is our Beijing bureau chief.

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