Macron defies criticism to host Saudi crown prince

French President Emmanuel Macron was hosting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a working dinner in Paris on Thursday.

The prince has been in Europe since Tuesday, visiting Greece and now France in his first official trip to the continent since the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

It is just the latest sign of the readmission of the kingdom’s de facto ruler after nearly four years of international isolation…