Even with the sharp drop in oil prices, Saudi Arabia isn't embracing austerity. New King Salman, as a goodwill gesture after his coronation, announced plans to hand out billions of dollars in cash to Saudi citizens. "It is party time for Saudi Arabia right now," investment banker John Sfakianakis tells The New York Times, pegging the king's inaugural splurge at more than $32 billion.
The money will go toward grants to various groups and clubs, infrastructure investments, and a hefty bonus — twice a worker's salary — to all government employees, pensioners, soldiers, and stipend-receiving students, The Times reports. More than half of the 5.5 million employed Saudis work for the government. The popular show of largesse will add to Saudi Arabia's already sizable deficit, but the oil-rich kingdom has $700 billion in foreign reserves. Peter Weber
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) on Wednesday signed an executive order ending the state's lifetime voting ban for residents who have a felony conviction, giving them the ability to vote after they complete their sentences.
The move comes after activists spent months protesting outside the state capitol. The nonprofit Sentencing Project estimated in 2016 that about 52,000 Iowans weren't able to vote because of their felony convictions, with almost 24,000 finished with their criminal sentences.
"Today we take a significant step forward in acknowledging the importance of redemption, second chances, and the need to address inequalities in our justice system," Reynolds said in a statement. "The right to vote is the cornerstone of society and the free republic in which we live. When someone serves their sentence, they should have their right to vote restored automatically."
Robert Pate runs a mentorship and support group in Des Moines called Image 4 Lives, and as someone with a felony conviction, he is "thankful" for the executive order. "People will feel more accepted coming out of prison," Pate told The Guardian. "People will get more involved with voting."
Those convicted of murder, manslaughter, and abortion after the second trimester, which is a felony in the state, will not see their voting rights automatically restored, The Guardian reports. Because this is an executive order and not a constitutional amendment, the change could be rescinded by a future governor, but Reynolds said she will push the Republican-led legislature to pass an amendment making her new policy permanent. Catherine Garcia
In a summer largely without sports, one team is making a triumphant return to entertain you: The U.S. Army esports team.
The team took a brief hiatus from streaming their Call of Duty games on Twitch in July, after a First Amendment controversy when commenters asking about war crimes were banned.
Now, they are reinstating access to the accounts that were previously banned for what the army calls "harassing and degrading behavior." The team is establishing clarified guidelines and will resume streaming soon, the Army told Vice.
The Army, Navy, and Air Force have esports teams, often used as recruitment measures, but the Marines do not have a team. This is "in part to the belief that the brand and issues associated with combat are too serious to be 'gamified' in a responsible manner," Marine Corps Recruiting Command wrote, reports Vice.
The sentiment was echoed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) last week as she defended a proposed amendment to stop the military from using games as a recruiting method, which the House ultimately blocked. "War is not a game," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We can not conflate war and military service with this kind of gamified format."
A specific date has not been set for the U.S. Army esports team's return to Twitch, but they said it will be in the "near future." Taylor Watson
A security vulnerability in Twitter for Android could have allowed attackers to access some users' direct messages, the company has disclosed.
Twitter on Wednesday said it has fixed a vulnerability in the Android app that for some users "could allow an attacker, through a malicious app installed on your device, to access private Twitter data on your device (like direct messages), by working around Android system permissions that protect against this." This was "related to an underlying Android OS security issue" on Android OS versions 8 and 9, the company said.
Twitter said it believes 96 percent of Android users have a patch protecting them from the vulnerability, and it doesn't have evidence that attackers actually exploited the flaw, but the company adds it "can't be completely sure" of that. It's sending notifications to the users who may have been affected, requiring them to update the Android app, and promising to identify "changes to our processes to better guard against issues like this."
This disclosure from Twitter comes after the company last month grappled with a massive hack, in which high-profile accounts including those belonging to former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden were taken over to promote a Bitcoin scam. The company said that 130 accounts were targeted, and the attackers accessed direct messages on "up to 36" of them, including that of an elected official in the Netherlands. Brendan Morrow
More than 100 foreign policy experts — including former White House officials in Reagan, (both) Bush, Clinton, Obama, and Trump administrations — laid out six proposals for how the United States should alter its relationship with Russia in an open letter published by Politico on Tuesday.
The letter calls for squelching Russian interference in U.S. elections, while also engaging with Moscow about the matter through negotiations "out of the public square." Another top priority, the signatories believe, is for the White House and Congress to restore "normal diplomatic contacts" with Russia after several were shuttered following the Crimea invasion in 2014. "Too often we wrongly consider diplomatic contacts as a reward for good behavior, but they are about promoting our interests and delivering tough messages," the letter reads.
The other ideas include taking on a dual leadership role with Moscow in nuclear arms control, focusing on "three-way cooperation" between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing, and emphasizing that even in areas of genuine disagreement between the countries — like Ukraine and Syria — "measured and phased steps" are key to improving the "overall relationship."
Finally, the letter argues that Washington's sanction strategy needs to change. While, the signatories agree sanctions should remain part of the U.S.'s Russia policy, they need to be more flexible so they can be "eased quickly" should Russia engage productively in negotiations. At the moment, Moscow lacks the incentive to change course even in the face of sanctions, the letter says, because it considers U.S. sanctions "permanent." Read more at Politico. Tim O'Donnell