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Should there be a limit on foreign investment in professional sports? Sportswashing—when a government uses sports to improve its country’s reputation, distract from human rights abuses, or political controversies—has become a major problem in athletics and pro sports. But can governments do anything to stop it?
Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins joined Ian Bremmer on GZERO World ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris to talk about politics, sports and how they overlap. Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars in the last few years in sports like golf and tennis to help burnish its global reputation as a modern, forward-looking country. Sportswashing isn’t just a moral issue but also a political one, Jenkins points out, because the more foreign money that gets entangled in domestic companies, the more difficult it is for governments to draw a red line. Jenkin also addresses the NBA’s complex relationship with China on issues like Hong Kong, another example of how financial ties can lead to compromising on democratic values, a position Jenkins calls “the anaconda in the chandelier.”
Watch full episode: The politics of the Paris Olympics
Season 7 of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, launches nationwide on public television stations (check local listings).
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Politics, power, and the Paris Olympics: Insight from WashPo sports columnist Sally Jenkins
Listen: The 2024 Summer Olympic Games kick off in Paris this week as the world’s most elite athletes representing more than 200 countries gather in the French capital to compete for gold. Over the next two weeks, we’ll see triumphant wins, heartbreaking losses, superhuman feats of strength, and touching displays of international sportsmanship. But politics loom large at the Olympics, threatening to overshadow the City of Light’s big celebration. Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World Podcast to discuss the biggest stories heading into the 2024 Olympics, including the ban on Russia’s Olympic Committee, calls for Israeli athletes to compete under a neutral flag, and security concerns at what Jenkins calls “the most sprawling and urban Olympics in history.” They also dig into the problem with Saudi sportswashing, the NBA’s financial interest in China, and a transformative WNBA season that’s bringing more eyeballs to games than ever before.
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Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman meets with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Al Yamamah Palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 29, 2024.
Saudi Arabia is reportedly showing fresh interest in a roadmap to peace in Yemen that was iced late last year in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.
The background: For a decade, Saudi Arabia has backed the Yemeni government in a brutal civil war against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels who now control most of the country. The conflict plunged Yemen into a hellish humanitarian catastrophe.
A peace roadmap from last year, which envisions power-sharing and cash transfers to the Houthis for public salaries, was shelved when the group began attacking Red Sea shipping in solidarity with the Palestinians, driving down shipping volumes through the crucial commercial waterway by half.
The Houthis would have to stop those as part of any peace deal.
Wider lens: The Saudis are keen to stabilize the Yemen situation. At the same time, Washington wants to keep Riyadh interested in normalizing ties with Israel as part of a deal that would include a US security guarantee and progress towards a Palestinian state.
But Saudi’s peace push is a gamble for Biden. “A deal would hand the Houthis basically everything they want,” says Gregory Brew, an Iran specialist at Eurasia Group. “Hard for Biden to spin that as a win, even if Red Sea commerce picks back up.”
PA via Reuters The Princess of Wales attends Trooping the Colour, London.
75: King Charles III celebrated his 75th birthday (actually Nov. 14) with the traditional “Trooping of the Colours” ceremony and birthday parade on Saturday — but it was Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, who stole the show with her first public appearance in months. Both Kate and Charles have been dealing with cancer diagnoses, and the princess recently said she expects a few more months of treatment.
977: Japanese health authorities are raising the alarm over an alarming spike in patients with a “flesh-eating bacteria” that can kill within 48 hours if left untreated, with 977 cases reported between January and June. That’s as many as were reported in all of 2023, and with a mortality rate of around 30%, doctors are urging people to wash their hands carefully as the best first line of defense.
14: At least 14 Jordanian pilgrims have perished during the Hajj in Saudi Arabia, and at least another 17 are missing as an intense heatwave has made the annual religious event riskier than usual. Temperatures in Mecca are expected to reach 116 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C) on Monday.
50: New analysis by the Centre for Information Resilience of NASA satellite images shows that the parties in Sudan’s ongoing civil war have deliberately burned at least 50 villages, and possibly as many as 235, largely in the Darfur region. The Rapid Support Forces have been systematically targeting Black ethnicities in the region, particularly the Masalit people, and setting fire to villages as part of a strategy of ethnic cleansing.
10,000: Speaking of fires, a wildfire has blazed over 10,000 acres near Los Angeles, forcing the evacuation of 1,200 people from the Hungry Valley recreation area. The inferno was not contained at the time of writing, and authorities say hot, dry winds are hampering efforts to combat it.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel, 31 December 2023.
Amid growing global calls for a cease-fire in Gaza and rapidly escalating tensions across the Middle East, Arab states and the US are increasingly looking towards a longer-term solution that revives the idea of a Saudi-Israel normalization deal that includes the outlines of a Palestinian state.
At least one Israeli leader isn’t completely opposed to the idea: Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday said that Saudi Arabia formally recognizing Israel would be “key to the ability to exit from the war into a new horizon.”
This came just two days after Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the kingdom would “certainly” be willing to recognize Israel – though only as part of an agreement involving the creation of “a Palestinian state.”
The idea isn’t totally new. Prior to Oct. 7, there was a Saudi-Israel normalization deal in the works too, but Palestinian statehood was not viewed as Riyadh’s top priority at the time.
So just how realistic is this revitalized effort?
“It’s good politics in the US,” and the White House believes “it’s the best way to induce Israel to be more reasonable on the Palestinian issue,” says Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute.
Still there are two big problems.
First, the ongoing war in Gaza. The Saudi ambassador to the US on Thursday said that normalization won't be possible until there's a cease-fire.
Second? An obstacle named Bibi. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday said he has told the US he categorically rejects any calls for a post-war Palestinian state, stating that Israel needs “security control” over all territory west of the Jordan River, which includes the West Bank and Gaza. That’s Bibi’s version of “river to the sea.”
With factions of his hard-right government opposed to making concessions to Palestinians and “no consensus” on governance in post-war Gaza, it’s going to be “difficult to get the necessary pieces aligned over the short-term” for any normalization deals, says Sofia Meranto, a Middle East analyst at Eurasia Group.
Putting Bibi in a corner? But as Washington and Arab countries continue to champion this approach, it could further isolate Bibi at a time when he’s extraordinarily unpopular in Israel.
Netanyahu is standing in the way of an important diplomatic initiative that could strengthen the Jewish State and stability in the region, says Ibish, and the Biden administration, which wants Bibi gone “as soon as possible,” is making the point to the rest of Israel that this could be possible without “obstruction” from the Israeli leader and “his extremist friends.”
Whether this will bear fruit remains to be seen, but it’s a space we’ll be keeping a close eye on in the days ahead.
The Trump International Hotel is seen in Washington, U.S. September 28, 2020.
The Constitution explicitly forbids a president from taking gifts or payments “of any kind whatever from any King, Prince, or foreign State” without permission from Congress – but it’s hard to see what Democrats in Congress might do to hold Trump accountable for allegedly breaking the law.
Using financial records from Trump’s former accountants, Congressional Democrats found evidence that the former president accepted at least $7.8 million during his time in office from foreign government entities who booked space at Trump properties. That represents just a fraction of the total probable sum, as Republicans halted efforts to force the accountants to fork over more documents when they regained control of Congress in 2022.
Some highlights from the report:
- $5,572,548 from China.
- $615,422 from Saudi Arabia.
- $465,744 from Qatar.
- $154,750 from Afghanistan.
- $25,171 from the Democratic Republic of Congo (That’s about 32 years’ worth of wages for the average Congolese, by the way).
So this is pretty clear-cut, right? Trump is accused of doing something the Constitution explicitly forbids. Surely, there will be some sort of formal consequence? Probably not, and don’t call me Shirley.
The Democrats’ report ends with pretty milquetoast calls for Congress to implement more stringent disclosure rules and formalize a process for presidential requests to keep gifts and payments from foreigners.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks during Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, November, 11, 2023.
In Riyadh, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (widely known as MBS) hosted a joint Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation summit, whose leaders on Saturday called for an immediate halt to Israel’s “barbaric” military assault in Gaza — stopping short of imposing political or economic sanctions on Israel.
Why the mixed message? The Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s military response in Gaza have put MBS in a bind. The king-in-waiting’s top priority remains the modernization of his kingdom and its economy. That’s the central purpose of his Vision 2030 project to diversify the Saudi economy away from its longtime dependence on oil exports for growth and revenue.
Before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Saudi officials were working toward a historic deal to normalize relations with Israel that could help stabilize business relations in the region and boost relations with the United States, a plan MBS hopes might include some form of US security guarantee and material support for a Saudi nuclear energy project.
The war in Gaza brought that bargaining to an abrupt halt. US and European officials want the Saudis to help finance and police a post-Hamas Gaza, but MBS has no interest in assuming those costs and risks. He also considers Hamas an ally of Islamist terrorist groups who threaten the Saudi government.
Some in the Muslim world, meanwhile, want the Saudis to punish Israel and its chief backer, the US, for the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by cutting oil exports that would push prices sharply higher. But major oil customer China, grappling with a serious economic slowdown, won’t be happy if the Saudis send near-term prices soaring. The delicate dance continues.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky participate in the Conference of Ambassadors of Ukraine, in Kyiv President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky participate in the Conference of Ambassadors of Ukraine, in Kyiv on December 23, 2022.
2: Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday they had detained two colonels in the State Guard, the unit responsible for protecting Kyiv’s most important officials, who were allegedly plotting to kill President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of his government. The suspects were allegedly working for the Russian Federal Security Service and may have planned to carry out the assassination to coincide with President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration.
5: Speaking of, Putin was inaugurated for his fifth term as president of Russia on Tuesday in a glittering ceremony at the Kremlin. Putin has led Russia since 1999, with a brief stint as prime minister while his puppet Dmitri Medvedev helped change the constitution to make Putin president again. His new term ends in 2030, but his reign likely won’t.
2: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) met with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) two days in a row on Tuesday before announcing she would back off on her threat to unseat him. Johnson has now survived the wrath of the far-right despite needing to cooperate with Democrats to pass bills, a move that doomed his predecessor.
1.5: Saudi Arabia has downscaled the first segment of its Neom project, the “line city” that is envisioned to stretch 105 miles through the Saudi desert, from 10 to just 1.5 miles by 2030 amid delays and cost overruns. With around $100 billion of the original $500 billion cost projection already spent, some experts estimate that Riyadh may end up spending $2 trillion if it wants to complete this megaproject.