King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his projected victory in the 2020 election on Sunday, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Why it matters: The Saudi government has been one of the Trump administration's closest allies in the world, with White House adviser Jared Kushner sharing a personal friendship with MBS. Despite pressure from Congress, President Trump stuck by MBS after he was accused of ordering the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The Trump administration, in coordination with Israel and several Gulf states, is pushing a plan to slap a long string of new sanctions on Iran in the 10 weeks left until Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, two Israeli sources briefed on the effort told me.
Driving the news: The Trump administration’s envoy for Iran Elliott Abrams arrived in Israel on Sunday and met Prime Minister Netanyahu and National Security adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat to discuss the sanctions plan.
The British government will spend £170 million ($220 million) on providing free meals to poor children and their families during the holidays, following a child hunger campaign by soccer star Marcus Rashford, AP reports.
The big picture: The program was spurred by a petition from the 23-year-old Manchester United forward and garnered more than 1 million signatures after initially being rejected by Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government. It will affect nearly 1.7 million children in the U.K. over the next 12 months, Rashford said.
More than 12 hours after the U.S. television networks called the presidential race for Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted his congratulations to the president-elect.
Why it matters: Israel is one of the main allies of the U.S., but Netanyahu’s congratulatory tweet came long after most leaders around the world had already congratulated Biden.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been silent on the U.S. elections, and unlike many world leaders still hasn't congratulated President-elect Joe Biden.
What they're saying: Netanyahu aides say he is "waiting for the official results."
A TikTok executive said at a U.K. parliamentary hearing this week that the video-sharing platform previously censored content that was critical of China, especially videos about Uighur Muslims being detained in Xinjiang.
What they're saying: "At that time we took a decision [...] to not allow conflict on the platform, and so there was some incidents where content was not allowed on the platform, specifically with regard to the Uighur situation," Elizabeth Kanter, the company's U.K. director of public policy, said.
At least 150 are believed to be dead or missing in Guatemala after Tropical Depression Eta brought torrential rain to Central America, triggering devastating flooding and mudslides, per Reuters.
The big picture: Eta, which made landfall in Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane on Tuesday, was expected to strengthen overnight as it moved northeast toward Cuba, the Cayman Islands, parts of the Bahamas and southern Florida, the National Hurricane Center said late on Friday.
