Musings From Abroad

Saudi Arabia beheads 81: Social media not happy with Boris Johnson, Joe Biden… here’s why

Published

1 year ago

March 13, 2022

Reactions from across the world have been trailing news that Saudi Arabia in what is the largest known mass execution carried out in the kingdom in modern history executed 81 men over the past 24 hours.

News of the execution broke on Saturday with victims reported to be seven Yemenis, one Syrian national and the rest Saudi Arabians.

According to news agency Saudi Press Agency, the victims were executed on charges that include “allegiance to foreign terrorist organisations” and holding “deviant beliefs”.

Some observers on social media have viewed the development in contrast with the recent announcement by the United Kingdom to seize all assets of Chelsea Football Club owner – Roman Abramovich on the account of being one of seven oligarchs seen as allies of Vladimir Putin and in connection with the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Accusations of double standards are also levelled against the United Kingdom government on the ground of its past and recent relations with the Saudis despite age long report of human right violations but swift to ground Putin’s allies’ assets.

We're praising ourselves for stopping buying Russian fuel because they're bombing Ukrainian civilians.

MEANWHILE…

We're not only buying fuel from Saudi Arabia while they're bombing Yemeni civilians, but we're giving them the bombs to do it.

But ALL lives matter, right?🤮

— Femi (@Femi_Sorry) March 9, 2022

Another Twitter user argued that if Putin disqualifies Roman Abramovich from owning assets in the UK, the same standard should mean Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is also not qualified to own Newcastle Football Club.

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, 36-year-old Mohammed bin Salman is believed to be behind the Saudi Public Investment Fund who recently bought Newcastle Football Club.

Saudi Arabia beheaded 81 people today. Now tell me again why MBS is considered a fit person to own Newcastle United.

— David__Osland (@David__Osland) March 12, 2022

Saturday
– Roman Abramovich disqualified after being sanctioned by the UK government
– Saudi Arabia executes a record 81 men in one day

Sunday
– Chelsea v Newcastle

No need to whatabout me. These are just remarkable facts for a game of football.

— Paul Hayward (@_PaulHayward) March 13, 2022

Reports from the United Kingdom on Sunday says Prime Minister Boris Johnson is poised to travel to Saudi Arabia next week for talks on oil as he attempts to move the UK away from dependence on energy supplies from Russia.

We never did find out if Saudi Arabia or the UAE ever ended up returning Joe Biden's phone calls.

I still never thought I'd live to see the day foreign leaders ghost the President of the United States.

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) March 13, 2022

The United States has also been called out amidst the development.

“Hello from 🇬🇧, which allowed Putin to infiltrate and subvert our entire democracy. Now we’ve realised that regime is awful, we’re off to Saudi Arabia tomorrow to get them to pump more oil, even though they executed 81 people yesterday and bomb Yemen with weapons we sold them.”

— Brendan May (@bmay) March 13, 2022

Poland refuses to send Jets, Saudi Arabia hasn't answered any of our calls, and Iran just bombed our consulate in Erbil.

But at least we got equity training in our military.

The Biden presidency

— Josh Barnett for Congress (AZ-01) (@BarnettforAZ) March 13, 2022

Musings From Abroad

Angola, Portugal sign 13-point pact spanning finance, law, others

Published

2 days ago

June 6, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

Angola and Portugal have signed a Memorandum of Understanding including 13 different agreements that cut across financial, legal and other critical areas.

The Angolan President, João Lourenço, who received his Portuguese counterpart, António Costa on Monday, revealed that the country was enthusiastic about partnering with its erstwhile colonialist.

“I have to say that we sensed a great willingness to collaborate on the part of the Portuguese justice system, with whom we were able to exchange not only information but also the alignment of Angola’s anti-corruption strategy and to say that in principle everything that was asked of the Portuguese authorities so that we could find the right correspondent”, president Lourenço said.

The Portuguese president announced a rise in its financial commitment to Angola which is a top oil producer in Africa.

“To support the Angolan government’s ambition and strategic approach to diversifying the country’s economy, we have significantly increased the credit line from one thousand five hundred to two billion euros”, announced Costa.

The new agreement will run till 2027. The economies of Angola and Portugal are deeply intertwined, and the two countries share a language and cultural heritage.

According to consular statistics, approximately 100,000 Portuguese nationals work in Angola, with approximately 10,000 Portuguese firms operating in a variety of sectors such as construction, engineering, hospitality, law, and financial services.

Musings From Abroad

Israeli PM, Netanyahu demands investigation over killing of soldiers in Egypt

Published

3 days ago

June 5, 2023

Ifeoluwa Dada

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu has called for an explanation from Egyptian authorities following the reported killing of three Israeli soldiers by a member of the Egyptian security services.

He told his cabinet in televised remarks that “Israel relayed a clear message to the Egyptian government. We expect that the joint investigation will be exhaustive and thorough.

“We will refresh procedures and methods of operations and also the measures to reduce to a minimum the smuggling and to ensure tragic terrorist attacks like this do not happen again.”

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack near Egypt’s border by a gunman wearing an Egyptian police uniform— the first deadly exchange along the border shared by the two countries in more than a decade.

According to the Israeli military, two soldiers were killed by an Egyptian policeman while securing a military post near the Egyptian border early Saturday. According to the report, the Egyptian officer and a third Israeli soldier were killed in a clash on Israeli territory hours later.

Israeli military spokesman, Daniel Hagari, while addressing journalists, said: “From that moment a terrorist event was declared, leading to sweeps of the area.”

He also revealed that “a drone was sent up and 1.5 kilometres inside Israel a suspicious person was identified.”

Egypt’s relationship with Israel is complicated and has evolved significantly over time. Despite having fought four wars, the two countries now work closely together, primarily on security issues.