Conversation on the Kingdom in the global press is largely dominated this morning by talk of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s visit today, as we note in this morning’s What We’re Tracking Today, above.

Shout-outs from the Financial Time: Saudi is one of just three countries in which the OECD says K-12 educational outcomes improved “because outcomes improved for disadvantaged students.” The salmon-colored newspaper also gave Saudi Arabia props for opening up to more western law firms. The true extent of damage to schools from Covid-19 or US law firms fine-tune global expansion ambitions.

Is the Royal Saudi Airforce looking at Rafales? That’s the claim in Bloomberg, which says defense officials have been in talks for months with Dassault Aviation to buy Rafales instead of Eurofighter Typhoons.

More tick-tock on oil: US crude oil output set a record high for the second consecutive month in September, posing a significant challenge to the kingdom and its OPEC partners, as they slash their own production in an attempt to salvage falling oil prices, Reuters writes.

The Indian press is happy that Saudi Arabia is offering Indian nationals 48-hour turnaround times on new visa applicant — and the ability to perform umrah on business and tourism visas.

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