CIA Director William Burns made an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia last month to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, U.S. and Saudi officials said, as the Biden administration pushes to repair ties with a key Middle East security partner.

Six months after leaving the White House, Jared Kushner secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by the Saudi crown prince, a close ally during the Trump administration, despite objections from the fund’s advisers about the merits of the deal.

A panel that screens investments for the main Saudi sovereign wealth fund cited concerns about the proposed deal with Mr. Kushner’s newly formed private equity firm, Affinity Partners, previously undisclosed documents show.

Summary

U.S. wants action from suppliers to tame oil prices

OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia has spare oil capacity

OPEC+ not budging on output plans despite Ukraine crisis

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan raised normalization with Israel during his recent meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, three U.S. and Arab sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: Saudi Arabia would be the biggest regional player to sign onto the "Abraham Accords" peace agreement with Israel, and such a major breakthrough would likely convince other Arab and Muslim countries to follow suit.

A Saudi court issued final verdicts on Monday in the case of slain Washington Post columnist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi after his son, who still resides in the kingdom, announced pardons that spared five of the convicted individuals from execution.

President Donald Trump tweeted on Thursday that Saudi Arabia and Russia appeared to be close to curbing their oil production, a potential lifeline for the U.S. oil sector that has been buffeted by plummeting energy demand from the coronavirus and a flood of crude exports from the two countries.

Oil prices skyrocketed on Thursday after President Donald Trump told CNBC Saudis and Russia will ease pressure on oil, ending a price war that has contributed to crude’s massive plunge.

West Texas Intermediate crude futures surged 24.4%, or $4.99 to trade at $25.30 per barrel. Earlier in the session WTI traded as high as $27.39. International benchmark Brent crude jumped 22%, or $5.46, to trade at $30.21 per barrel.

Stocks pushed higher Thursday, buoyed after President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia and Russia had agreed to curb oil production in order to stabilize prices, even after data showed U.S. weekly jobless claims soared to a record.

On Wednesday equities fell sharply to begin the second quarter as investors weighed the start of an onslaught of bad news on the public health front and the economy against hoped-for stimulus as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

This Abridge News topic aggregates four unique arguments on different sides of the debate. Here are the quick facts to get you started:

THE QUICK FACTS

The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone “hacked” in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian.

The encrypted message from the number used by Mohammed bin Salman is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated the phone of the world’s richest man, according to the results of a digital forensic analysis.