The White House hit out Thursday at South Africa's leader for “running his mouth” over the United States' boycott of this weekend's Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg in another diplomatic rift between the U.

As candles flickered and a piano played in the East Room, leaders of the United States’ biggest companies signaled they were open for business with Saudi Arabia.

The men, two different generations of New Yorkers, announced nothing new on policy except what seemed to be the launch of an unexpected, politics-shifting professional friendship.