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Musings From Abroad

It’s Official! Forbes declares Elon Musk world’s richest person, now worth $219bn after acquiring Twitter shares

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Billionaire Tesla chief executive Elon Musk, is now the richest man on earth with a net worth of $219 billion, according to the latest Forbes Billionaires List released on Wednesday.

With the net worth of the world’s wealthiest people slipping to $12.7tn due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, Covid-19 and volatile stock markets caused wealth erosion, leading to 329 billionaires dropping out of the Forbes’ 2022 rich list, Musk’s recent acquisition of 73.4 million shares of Twitter, worth about $3 billion, making him the largest shareholder in the social media company, has shot him up the world billionaire list.

According to Forbes in its annual report, the present world billionaire listing of 2,668, is an all time-down from 2,755 last year.

Using stock prices and exchange rates from March 11 to calculate the net worth of the world’s richest people, it said it was not surprising that 329 people fell off the list.

“In all, 329 people fell off the billionaires list this year – the most since the 2009 financial crisis,” Forbes said in the report.

Musk, who has been appointed to Twitter’s board with his purchase of 9.2 percent stake in the microblogging platform, topped the Forbes list for the first time with a net worth of $219 billion, according to the report.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, fell to number two for the first time in four years due to a 3 percent drop in Amazon stock and increased charitable giving, which wiped $6bn from his net worth, the Forbes report said.

French luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault, who added $8bn to his fortune over the past year, remains the world’s third-richest person and rounding out the top five are Bill Gates and Warren Buffett with personal fortunes of $129bn and $118bn, respectively.

There were 236 newcomers added to the billionaire ranks this year, including pop star Rihanna, Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and venture capitalist Josh Kushner.

Though this is the first time Musk will be making the top of the Forbes’ list, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index had named him the world’s richest person at the end of 2021 with a personal fortune of $273.5bn.

These are the top 10 richest people in 2022, and their net worth

1. Elon Musk: $219bn

2. Jeff Bezos: $171bn

3. Bernard Arnault: $158bn

4. Bill Gates: $129bn

5. Warren Buffett: $118bn

6. Larry Page: $111bn

7. Sergey Brin: $107bn

8. Larry Ellison: $106bn

9. Steve Ballmer: $91.4bn

10. Mukesh Ambani: $90.7bn

Musings From Abroad

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

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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.

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Musings From Abroad

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

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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.

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