Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia Closes Borders Over New COVID Strain

Reuters reports: Saudi Arabia has temporarily suspended international flights and closed its land and sea borders to prevent the spread of an infectious new coronavirus strain first identified in Britain. The covid-19 variant has now been detected in at least five other countries, prompting several countries to ban flights from Britain. In a report late Sunday, the official Saudi Press …

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Trump Boasted He Saved Saudi Crown Prince’s “Ass”

The Insider reports: President Donald Trump bragged to the veteran journalist Bob Woodward that he protected Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) from congressional scrutiny after the brutal assassination of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Woodward wrote that Trump called him on January 22 shortly after attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During the conversation, Woodward pressed …

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Saudi Arabia Abolishes Flogging As A Punishment

Agence France-Presse reports: Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the state human rights commission said Saturday, hailing a “major step forward” in the reform programme launched by the king and his powerful son. Court-ordered floggings in Saudi Arabia — sometimes extending to hundreds of lashes — have long drawn condemnation from human rights groups. But they say the …

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Oil Turmoil Craters Dow By 1200 Points In 48 Hours

Roll Call reports: The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,200 points, or 5 percent, in the first two days of trading this week amid turmoil in energy markets. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones closed down 631.6 points, or 2.7 percent, and the S&P 500 closed down 86.6, or 3.1 percent. The losses followed record lows for oil on …

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Oil Prices Crater By 90% After Trump’s Heralded Deal

Markets Insider reports: Oil plunged to a more than three-decade low on Monday. The commodity’s latest round of sharp selling comes as uncertainty mounts around storage for excess oil. Demand for crude has plummeted since the coronavirus outbreak has frozen activity worldwide. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures expiring in May plunged as much as 84% to …

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Islamic High Council: Pray At Home During Ramadan

NBC News reports: Saudi Arabia’s highest religious body, the Council of Senior Scholars, urged Muslims worldwide to pray at home during Ramadan if their countries require social distancing, to curb the spread of the coronavirus, state news agency SPA reported on Sunday. “Muslims shall avoid gatherings, because they are the main cause of the spread of infection and shall remember …

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REPORT: 150 Saudi Royals Are Sick With Coronavirus

The New York Times reports: The senior Saudi prince who is governor of Riyadh [photo] is in intensive care with the coronavirus. Several dozen other members of the royal family have been sickened as well. And doctors at the elite hospital that treats Al-Saud clan members are preparing as many as 500 beds for an expected influx of other royals …

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Saudi Arabia Bans Pixar Film Over Lesbian Character

The BBC reports: Pixar’s latest animation Onward has been banned by several Middle Eastern countries because of a reference to lesbian parents, according to reports. The family film will not be shown in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Hollywood media have reported. Police officer Specter, voiced by Lena Waithe, has been heralded as Disney-Pixar’s first openly gay character. Her …

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Oil Prices Plummet After Russia-Saudi Pact Collapses

Reuters reports: Oil prices lost as much as a third of their value on Monday in their biggest daily rout since the 1991 Gulf War as Saudi Arabia and Russia signaled they would hike output in a market already awash with crude after their three-year supply pact collapsed. Despite sliding demand for crude due to the coronavirus, Riyadh made plans …

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Saudi Crown Prince Has Family Members Arrested

The New York Times reports: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has detained three members of the royal family, including a brother of the king and a former crown prince, a sign of how fully Crown Prince Mohammed has consolidated power, and that he may have seen a potential threat to it. The detentions were disclosed Friday by a member of …

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WaPo Board: Has Jared Kusner’s Phone Been Checked?

From the editorial board of the Washington Post: If Mohammed bin Salman did target Mr. Bezos for surveillance, it would not be an isolated case. As U.N. investigators Agnes Callamard and David Kaye said in their statement, “the allegations reinforce other reporting pointing to a pattern of targeted surveillance of perceived opponents and those of broader strategic importance to the …

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Johnson Also Chatted With Saudi Prince On WhatsApp

The Telegraph reports: Boris Johnson has been in communication with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince over WhatsApp, multiple former UK government figures have told The Telegraph, raising major security concerns in light of the Jeff Bezos hack. One source said they were “99 per cent sure” Mr Johnson sent messages over the platform to Mohammed bin Salman while others noted he …

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Saudi Crown Prince Texted Jeff Bezos Taunt About Affair Months Before It Was Revealed By National Enquirer

The Daily Beast reports: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent Jeff Bezos a photograph of woman resembling the one he was having an affair with months before the National Enquirer published a report exposing the liaison, according to a United Nations investigation. Two United Nations special rapporteurs released a statement Wednesday detailing forensic evidence linking MBS to the Bezos hack, …

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UN Calls For Probe Into Hacking Of Jeff Bezos’s Phone

The Telegraph reports: United Nations experts have called for an “immediate investigation” by the United States into information they received that suggests that Jeff Bezos’ phone was hacked after receiving a file sent from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s WhatsApp account. A joint statement from Agnes Callamard, the United Nations special rapporteur for extra-judicial killings, and David Kaye, the …

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REPORT: Saudi Prince Hacked Jeff Bezos’s Phone

The Guardian reports: 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 …

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Amash: Trump Is Selling Our Troops To Saudi Arabia

Politico reports: Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), a vocal critic of President Trump, on Saturday accused the president of selling U.S. military support to Saudi Arabia. Trump said in an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham the day before that he had pressured Riyadh to compensate the U.S. for a recent deployment to the Middle East. “We have a very good …

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Saudi Prince Visits Trump To Deliver Concerns On Iran

Axios reports: Saudi Arabia’s deputy defense minister, Prince Khalid Bin Salman, revealed on Twitter that he delivered a message to President Trump yesterday from his brother, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Saudi Arabia is deeply concerned it could become engulfed in uncontrolled escalation between the U.S. and Iran following President Trump’s decision to kill Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani. That explains …

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US Citizens In Saudi Arabia Warned Of Missiles Risk

ABC News reports: The U.S. has warned American citizens in Saudi Arabia “of the heightened risk of missile and drone attacks” amid soaring tensions with Iran. A security alert message sent Sunday by the U.S. mission there said that in the past “regional actors hostile to Saudi Arabia have conducted missile and drone attacks against both civilian and military targets …

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Saudi Arabia Arrests 200+ For “Public Indecency”

The New Straits Times reports: Saudi Arabia has arrested more than 200 people for violating “public decency” – including by wearing immodest clothing – and “harassment“, police said, in the first such crackdown since the ultra-conservative kingdom began easing social norms. Some 120 men and women have been arrested over the past week for offending public morals, including wearing “inappropriate …

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Five Sentenced To Die In Jamal Khashoggi Murder

Politico reports: A court in Saudi Arabia on Monday sentenced five people to death for the killing of Washington Post columnist and royal family critic Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul last year by a team of Saudi agents. Saudi Arabia’s state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV channel reported that three others were sentenced to prison. All can …

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