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| Mohammed bin Salman |
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is poised to pull off the ultimate sportswashing caper by landing the right to host the 2034 World Cup. It could bite him.
The Saudi $1B-plus investment in the PGA Tour is chump change compared to the billions required to prepare the Kingdom for the World Cup.
Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup, shelled out $225B to build the required infrastructure to host the big event.
The Saudis haven’t officially won the hosting rights yet, but the fix is in after FIFA, soccer’s governing body, decided to fast-track the bidding process for the 2034 Cup.
Hardly paragons of virtue and integrity, FIFA officials had planned to announce the 2034 host in 2027 or 2028, but then mysteriously moved up the announcement to next year.
Within an hour of that shocker announcement, MBS told FIFA said Saudi Arabia is willing to spend whatever it takes to establish itself as a sports powerhouse .
Unwilling to go toe-to-toe on the financial front, Australia withdrew and wished the Kingdom well.
MBS, though, won’t have a lot of time to savor his soccer victory.
The Kingdom must be ready to mount a full-blown PR campaign to counter critics, who now have 11 years to put Saudi Arabia’s awful human rights record under intense scrutiny.
Human Rights Watch has already entered the fray. It claims that the Kingdom’s human rights record has deteriorated under MBS, including mass executions, and the killing of hundreds of migrants at the Saudi-Yemen border.
“With Saudi Arabia’s estimated 13.4 million migrant workers, inadequate labor and heat protections and no unions, no independent human rights monitors, and no press freedom, there is every reason to fear for the lives of those who would build and service stadiums, transit, hotels and other hosting infrastructure in Saudi Arabia,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch.
Thousands of migrant workers, who were involved in the construction of facilities needed for Qatar’s World Cup, died.
How many will die in the heat and repressive human rights climate in Saudi Arabia?
Tucker Carlson and the misinformation gang can breathe a sigh of relief as Denmark’s Ørsted has decided to abandon two offshore wind projects off the Jersey coast due to supply chain issues, high interest rates and rising costs.
They claimed dead humpback whales were washing up on Jersey’s coast were due to construction activity related to the wind turbines.
The realty: the whales were colliding with ships.
Rutgers researchers found a big increase in the number of humpback whales visiting the shores of Jersey and New York as the water warms due to climate change.
Prey fish are swimming closer to shore habitats, luring the humpbacks into one of the world’s busiest shipping channels.
Tucker and his gang face a moment of truth. If whales continue to wash up on the shore after the wind turbines are gone, will they now admit that global warming is the cause of the whale deaths?
Right on target. Elon Musk paid $44B for Twitter a year ago. Under his mismanagement and general buffoonery, the social media platform, which is now called X, is now worth $19B.
In November, Musk joked that best way to make a “small fortune” in social media is to start out with a big one.
Elon has a bright future as a stand-up comedian.
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