Saudi Arabia picked a fight with...Canada?

Zack, Jenn, and Alex explore the utterly bizarre diplomatic fight between Saudi Arabia and Canada — and why it has everything to do with the ruthless ambition of Saudi’s young new crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. On Elsewhere, they discuss a big scoop Alex got on what the US is asking from North Korea in their nuclear arms negotiations — and what that tells us about how those negotiations are going (spoiler: not very well). Zack finally grants his Canadian fiancée’s wish to do a Canada episode, Jenn proposes a new location for a Trump hotel, and Alex reveals his unique nickname for the Saudi crown prince. References! Jenn’s piece on the Saudi Arabia-Canada fight (and a shorter, more up-to-date version here) The tweet from the Canadian foreign ministry that kicked things off Jenn specifically described one tweet with an image of a plane flying towards the Toronto skyline, and cited some Washington Post reporting. Here’s an article on the Saudi-owned media outlet al-Arabiya putting out a video calling Jordan Peterson a political prisoner. As we mentioned, there’s a Today, Explained episode that goes into much more depth on Jordan Peterson’s ideology! Zack also wrote a Peterson explainer. For more on the 2014 human rights violations that Alex mentioned, read this executive summary. Zack and Jenn talked about Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power. Here’s that story in more depth. Sarah Wildman wrote a great piece for Vox last year about Saudi princes being held at a Ritz-Carlton. As Alex mentioned, Saudi Arabia is currently bombing civilians in Yemen and has a diplomatic blockade against Qatar. And just this Thursday, the Saudi-led coalition bombed a school bus full of children in Yemen, killing at least 43 people, at least 29 of whom were children under the age of 15. Jenn quoted this essay from the Globe and Mail at the end of the first segment. We spent most of Elsewhere discussing Alex’s recent North Korea piece.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices