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The Obama administration on Monday confronted the fundamental contradiction in its increasingly tense relationship with Saudi Arabia. It could not bring itself, at least in public, to condemn the execution of a dissident cleric who challenged the royal family, for fear of undermining the fragile Saudi leadership that it desperately needs in fighting the Islamic State and ending the conflict in Syria.

Turkish defense companies are chasing contracts worth several billion dollars in Saudi Arabia, according to Turkish procurement officials. The officials said that one Turkish armored vehicles maker, FNSS, is looking to win a contract that may be worth up to $10 billion to supply scores of armored vehicles.

The Cameroonian military is facing accusations of misconduct. On December 8, the Associated Press (AP) reported that Cameroonian troops crossed into Nigeria and killed about 150 villagers, looting and burning the village. On December 23, AP reported that Cameroonian troops killed at least seventy residents in Nigeria’s Borno state. Meanwhile, Amnesty International on December 27, called on the Cameroonian authorities to “come clean over the fate of 130 people rounded up and detained by Cameroonian forces a year ago following security operations against Boko Haram.”

When he campaigned for the presidency of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto used the title of his book, “Mexico, the Great Hope,” to explain the record he hoped to achieve and the nation he hoped to build. More than three years into his presidency, it seems more likely that he will be remembered not as the transformational leader Mexicans thought they had elected, but as a politician who skirted accountability at every turn.