Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman has said he simply does not care whether US President Joe Biden misunderstands him or not. In an interview with The Atlantic, Prince Mohammed said his aim was to strengthen Riyadh’s long, historical relationship with Washington, but he was not concerned about whether Biden misunderstood him. “Simply, I do not care,” the crown prince was quoted as saying.
A mosque in Ukraine’s Mariupol – which was sheltering 80 civilians – has been bombed by Russian forces. The war-torn eastern European country’s foreign ministry tweeted ‘the mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana (Hurrem Sultan) in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders’. “More than 80 adults and children are hiding there from the shelling, including citizens of Turkey”.
Pakistani painter Rabia Zakir, this week became the first international artist to hold a solo show in Madinah. Zakir is well known in Islamabad’s diplomatic circles for her portraits of Arab leaders, including the Saudi crown prince and members of the royal families of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Her portraits and landscapes hang in 50 embassies in Pakistan.
The de facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have reportedly declines calls from the White House. The calls from President Biden and the U.S. were based on the agenda to build international support for Ukraine and contain a surge in oil prices. Saudi and Emirati officials have also become more vocal in their criticism of American policy in Gulf.
The Dutch football legend Clarence Seedorf has announced that he has converted to Islam, the 45-year-old said on Friday from his official Instagram account. Clarence Seedorf played for many big-name clubs, including Ajax, Real Madrid, Inter Milan and AC Milan, throughout his remarkable career. Seedorf said: “A special thanks to all the nice messages in celebration of me joining the
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been seized by Russian military forces, after a fire sparked by overnight shelling burned for several hours at the largest facility of its kind in Europe. The blaze, located in a training building on the site’s perimeter, started early on Friday and was later extinguished. However, it was confirmed there had been no release of radiation.
A cargo ship that was carrying thousands of luxury cars has sunk off the Portuguese Azores archipelago, nearly two weeks after it caught fire. The ship, named Felicity Ace, was transporting around 4,000 cars such as Porsches and Bentleys. The vessel was on its way to Rhode Island in the United States from the German port of Emden when the fire broke out.
The Tinder Swindler, Simon Leviev (birth name Shimon Hayut) is now being sued by the family of billionaire and Israeli tycoon Lev Leviev who is known as the King of Diamonds. The Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler showed how Simon identified himself as the only son of the diamond businessman and used family photos and their luxury living to lure women into giving him money.
Western media and political figures have been accused of double standards for using their outlets to not only commend Ukraine’s armed resistance to Russian troops, but also to underlying their horror at how such a conflict could happen to a “civilised” nation. The Ukraine refugees were even termed “prosperous middle-class people” as compared to refugees of Iraq and Afganistan.
Pakistani-American, Saira Malik, has been appointed as chief investment officer (CIO) of Nuveen — a leading global asset management firm. Nuveen manages $1.2 trillion in equities, fixed income, real estate, private markets, natural resources, other alternatives and responsible investments. In this role, Malik drives the weekly market and investment insights and delivers client asset allocation views from across the firm’s investment teams.