💭 The comedy sketch accurately depicted Joe Biden as a feeble old man with dementia.
At the end of his speech Biden falls back in Kamala Harris’ arms after suddenly falling asleep.
The fact this is coming from Saudi Arabia – which is a joyless, humorless place where things like music and humor are forbidden or despised – is embarrassing.
💭 Netflix removes Hasan Minhaj comedy episode after Saudi demand
Netflix has removed from its streaming service in Saudi Arabia an episode of a comedy show critical of the kingdom.
The second episode of Patriot Act With Hasan Minhaj was removed following a legal demand, which reportedly said it violated a Saudi anti-cybercrime law.
It features Minhaj mocking the actions of Saudi officials following the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and condemning the crown prince’s policies.
Netflix said it backed artistic freedom but had to “comply with local law”.
What did Hasan Minhaj say?
“Just a few months ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as ‘MBS’, was hailed as the reformer the Arab World needed. But the revelations about Khashoggi’s killing have shattered that image,” said Minhaj in the episode of Patriot Act removed by Netflix.
Since being named second-in-line to the throne in June 2017, Prince Mohammed has introduced a raft of headline-grabbing reforms, such as lifting the ban on women being allowed to drive and seeking to shift its economy away from oil.
But, he has also been criticised for escalating a crackdown on dissenting voices, among them a number of women’s rights activists, pursuing a war in neighbouring Yemen that has caused a humanitarian catastrophe, and starting a diplomatic dispute with Qatar that has divided the Gulf Co-operation Council.
At the end of the episode, Minhaj said: “I am genuinely rooting for change in Saudi Arabia. I am rooting for the people of Saudi Arabia. There are people in Saudi Arabia fighting for true reform, but MBS is not one of them.”
“And to those who continue to work with him, just know that with every deal you close you are simply helping entrench an absolute monarch under the guise of progress, because ultimately MBS is not modernizing Saudi Arabia. The only thing he is modernizing is Saudi dictatorship.”
A Halo Around The Sun Startled PeopleiIn Ethiopia During Sunday’s Local Elections, With Many Seeing it as a Miracle or a Sign from God.
The ring of light caused by sunlight refracted by ice crystals hung in the sky for almost an hour before it finally faded and disappeared.
Some Ethiopians say it last appeared in 1991 before a military regime fell.
But the BBC’s Elizabeth Blunt in Addis Ababa says there is little chance it could augur change this time.
She says the overwhelming majority of candidates are from the government party.
Churchgoers who had flocked to see the visiting Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Shenouda, acclaimed the phenomenon as a miracle, or at least a sign of a blessing from God.
“We accept any sign from God to encourage us in our way,” he said, “and confirm that we are going right in our way.”
Abuna Paulos, the Patriarch of Ethiopia, added his voice to those who believe in signs from God.
“If God reveals himself from the sky,” he told a press conference, “we believers do not get surprised. We only rejoice and double our efforts to thank God. Thank you, God, for revealing a sign.”
Dictatorship
But others looked for more secular implications.
Older people in Addis Ababa remember seeing the ring around the sun once before – in the last days of the Derg, the despised military dictatorship, just before its leader Mengistu Haile Mariam fled to Zimbabwe.
But there is little prospect of the government falling in these elections.
The opposition winners of the controversial elections in 2005 in urban areas never took their seats and did not stand again.
The most successful of the other opposition parties pulled out, complaining of intimidation and our correspondent says the results are almost certain to consolidate the ruling party’s hold on power.
Results have not been published yet but an election official said turnout had been massive.