The Middle Eastern kingdom of Saudi Arabia owns around 16 percent of the world’s proven petroleum reserves and is the second-largest member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. On Jan. 5, Saudi Arabia announced that it would unilaterally cut 1 million barrels of crude oil production a day starting in February. The decision was made to benefit Saudi Arabia’s economy and that of its partnering countries by increasing oil prices as a response to the weakened global economies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
App under investigation by Apple for possible human rights violation
BY NADIA BABAR ’19
As of February 2019, an app allowing men to prohibit women under their guardianship from leaving the country of Saudi Arabia has been downloaded 4.2 million times. Absher is a smartphone app available to citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia, providing them access to a number of governmental services.