loujain al-hathloul

Activist Loujain al-Hathloul is far from free in MBS's reformed Saudi Arabia

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Activist Loujain al-Hathloul is far from free in MBS's reformed Saudi Arabia

In 2014, Loujain al Hathloul did the unthinkable: attempt to drive into Saudi Arabia, the last country in the world with a driving ban for women. That changed four years later after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, aka MBS, removed the restriction on women, she explains on GZERO World. But just six weeks before the ban was lifted there, she was arrested in the UAE and flown to Riyadh against her will. Loujain later spent more than 1,000 days behind bars for her activism defending women's rights.

What We're Watching: Saudi olive branch for Biden, US-China call, Ecuador's runoff in limbo

What We're Watching: Saudi olive branch for Biden, US-China call, Ecuador's runoff in limbo

Saudi women's rights advocate set free: After three years behind bars, Loujain al-Hathloul — locked up for lobbying for women's right to drive in Saudi Arabia — has been released from jail. The move is broadly seen as a low-stakes overture to President Biden by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who knows that the new US administration will not be as friendly as Trump's. Since coming into office, Biden has said the US will halt support for the Saudi military campaign in Yemen, and drop the Houthi militant group — Riyadh's rival in Yemen — from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism (a move that's caused a big stir in the foreign policy world). In contrast to Trump, who employed a maximum-pressure campaign on Iran much to the Saudis' delight, Biden says reengaging with Tehran (and rejoining the Iran nuclear deal) is a foreign policy priority. Indeed, the Saudis got comfortable with a US that sold it limitless weapons and ignored its human rights abuses — and prioritized relations with the kingdom to the extent that Trump made his first trip abroad to Riyadh (remember that weird orb moment). Biden has made clear that things will change under his watch, and the Saudis are slowly testing the waters.