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During his nine years living in Tennessee, Fahd, a Saudi national, found comfort and consistency at Dunkin Donuts, where he placed the same order every day.Now back in Riyadh, Fahd is doing something similar, highlighting the Saudi Arabian love affair with all things American that many find surprising.”When I came here, thank God, the same cafe and same order were here too,” said the 31-year-old mechanical engineer, who did not want to give his family name.”I started living the same lifestyle here as I did in America.”Saudi Arabia, often known for its religious austerity, is home to Islam’s holiest sites, and welcomes millions of Muslim pilgrims ever year.It also has — as just one example — more than 600 branches of Dunkin Donuts, serving roughly 250,000 of its 35-million population each day, according to the franchise.Despite its image as a cloistered and traditional society, life in Saudi is awash in Western corporate influence, especially from American companies.Buffalo Wild Wings, Chuck-e-Cheese and Starbucks populate Riyadh’s sprawl of office parks and shopping centres, while the capital’s traffic-clogged streets heave with hulking American SUVs and pickup trucks.- ‘Every neighbourhood’ -The nations have shared a tight bond since King Abdulaziz bin Saud, the founder of modern Saudi Arabia, and US president Franklin Roosevelt shook hands on board a US cruiser in the Suez Canal during the final months of World War II.In the ensuing decades, the United States has been at the forefront of providing military protection in return for privileged access to Saudi’s colossal oil reserves.The Saudi riyal is pegged to the greenback and US leaders have been regular guests, including Donald Trump who arrives in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday on the first major overseas trip of his second term.The relationship has faced rough patches — including the oil embargo in the 1970s, the September 11, 2001 attacks carried out by mostly Saudi hijackers and the gruesome murder of US-based dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul in 2018. But for Saudis, the ties that bind, including a love of American food, cars and movies, remain strong — even after a grassroots campaign to boycott US products that has swept the region during the Israel-Hamas war.”The one thing we never disagree on is going to an American restaurant — especially Buffalo Wild Wings,” Dalal Abdulaziz, 28, told AFP, saying that chicken wings were one of her favourite foods.”You’ll find American restaurants in every neighbourhood here. We eat it weekly, almost like Saudi food.”Khaled Salman Al-Dosari agrees, saying it is hard to find a single street in Saudi Arabia without an American brand on offer.”American companies’ products have become an inseparable part of our day,” added the 21-year-old student in Riyadh. – Just like home -While many American companies have been in Saudi Arabia for decades, its Vision 2030 agenda — the oil-dependent country’s giant economic diversification plan — has opened it up and paved the way for further investment.Live music and cinemas were all forbidden until recent years, but MMA fights and US professional wrestling are now among the entertainment offers available to Saudi consumers.”I think many Americans would be surprised at the extent to which American brands are all over Saudi Arabia,” said Andrew Leber from the department of political science at Tulane University. Some see further correlations in terms of climate, architecture — dry, dusty Riyadh, with its wide concrete boulevards, evokes an Arab Dallas — and even mindset.”Texas is close to Riyadh in terms of climate,” said Fahd, the mechanical engineer.”And its people are conservative like us.”Meanwhile, the Saudi taste for US products has benefits for the tens of thousands of Americans working in the kingdom, many of them in the oil industry.”It always… reminds me of home and keeps that connection with the places that I’ve seen since I’ve been growing up,” said Joshua Dunning, a 36-year-old American business developer working at a Saudi tech firm.”It’s always a nice reminder and seeing those places and products here in Saudi.”

Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa told AFP on Thursday he had sought assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the drug cartels that are terrorising the South American country.In an exclusive interview with AFP in Paris, the iron-fisted 37-year-old who won re-election last month said Israel and the UAE had agreed to provide intelligence “to help” fight cocaine traffickers.Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battled for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation’s ports.During presidential campaigning, Noboa suggested US special forces should be deployed to Ecuador to tackle the violence, and floated legal reforms to allow US bases to reopen.Over the past week, he travelled to Italy, Spain, Britain and France — some of the European countries experiencing rocketing cocaine consumption — to develop further security alliances, as well as Israel and the United Arab Emirates.He said he spoke to Israeli and Emirati leaders about “cooperation on security at ports and borders… since the violence is there, in the areas or on the routes to the ports.”But Noboa admitted “there is not much interest so far” from foreign powers in establishing military bases in the Andean country.In March, he announced a security alliance with Erik Prince, founder of the controversial American security company Blackwater, whose employees killed and wounded dozens of civilians in Iraq.Asked about the pact, Noboa said Prince was merely acting in a “consultancy” capacity.- ‘Vote of confidence’ -After a close-run race in the first round of Ecuador’s election Noboa easily defeated left-wing lawyer Luisa Gonzalez in April’s run-off.While Gonzalez had pitched herself as a political everywoman who would improve the lot of poor Ecuadorans, Noboa — heir to a banana export empire — staked his political fortunes on his war on the cartels.In March, he announced a preemptive amnesty for security forces fighting gangs in the violence-wracked port of Guayaquil, despite allegations of gross rights abuses by the military particularly.His tough talk appeared to pay off, with the incumbent taking an 11-point lead over his rival.Gonzalez rejected the results as fraudulent, without providing proof of her claim.Noboa said his win was a “vote of confidence” in his policies.He faces a tough task to unite a country grappling with its dramatic decline in fortunes. Rampant bloodshed has spooked investors and tourists alike, fueling economic malaise and swelling the ranks of Ecuador’s poor to 28 percent of the population.  “More than anything, we need to attract foreign investment,” Noboa said.But in order to access bond markets, the government needs to lower his country’s risk factor.Noboa assured that Ecuador’s economic fundamentals were “not bad,” citing low inflation and record bank deposits, among other indicators.”Our focus is job creation,” he said.

The United States said Thursday that a new foundation will soon announce plans for aid to Gaza, sidelining the United Nations as Israel’s two-month blockade brings severe shortages to the war-battered territory.State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the foundation was non-governmental and would make an announcement “shortly,” without offering further details.”We welcome moves to quickly get urgent food aid into Gaza… in a way that the food aid actually gets to those to whom it’s intended,” Bruce told reporters.”It cannot fall into the hands of terrorists such as Hamas.”Israel has imposed a blockade for two months on Gaza, leading UN agencies and other humanitarian groups to warn of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel to medicine to the territory of 2.4 million Palestinians.Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding and has vowed to ramp up pressure further on Hamas. The Israeli military has already leveled most of the territory’s buildings following militants’ unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.Israel has long criticized involvement of the United Nations, seeing it as biased, and has banned work of the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees.Asked about the lack of a role for the United Nations, whose efforts have been impeded by Israel, Bruce said: “Endless press releases and Hamas appeasement have not delivered food, medicine or shelter to those who need it.”US President Donald Trump has teased a major announcement before he heads on a tour next week of Gulf Arab monarchies.Little is known for certain about the foundation, but a listing in Switzerland showed the establishment in February of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”Swiss newspaper Le Temps reported that the foundation was looking to hire “mercenaries” to work in the distribution of aid.Amnesty International’s Swiss chapter voiced alarm, saying in a statement: “A foundation contributing to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory would be in violation of international law and fail to meet its responsibility to respect human rights.”Israeli officials in recent days have spoken of a broader assault in Gaza, whose population has been almost entirely displaced by the military offensive.Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the territory will be “entirely destroyed.”European governments, UN experts and China have voiced alarm over the Israeli plans. The Trump administration has held back on criticism and blamed Hamas for the situation.Trump since taking office has stopped the vast majority of US international assistance.