- Squared Take
- Posts
- 🎬Tit-for-tat
🎬Tit-for-tat
Happy Wednesday! Today’s intro is courtesy of my neighbor’s speaker that has blasted Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream’ on repeat in the past hour or so. Perhaps an ode to the pop star’s perspective-changing trip to space on Monday morning.
I was prompted to check through again and found that the 11-minute cosmic joyride would cost $150k for future expeditions on Blue Origin’s Shepard rocket. Maybe the music is not such a bad idea after all if not the closest to reliving her experience.
— Benyin Ogar.
Currency exchange rates as of market close yesterday. Here’s what these numbers mean
France and Algeria are taking jabs at each other
The Maghreb Times
Well, divorce lawyers probably have a record on their hands with this one: Barely two weeks after newspapers were awash with reports of a new found collaboration between France and Algeria, France said yesterday that it was expelling 12 Algerian diplomats from its territory, only a day after Algeria had launched hostilities by doing same.
Tit-for-tat: Algerian authorities said on Monday that they were only returning the vibe given to them by France when French authorities arrested the Algerian Consular General in Paris over a kidnapping case.
Who was kidnapped? An influencer named Amir Bukhors, a fervent critic of President Abdelmajid Tebbounne in the past, who was granted asylum in France in 2023.
Turns out this was just the cherry on the cake
In reality, relations between both sides had started deteriorating a year ago when France decided to support Morocco’s quest to control Western Sahara, ditching its earlier stance as an ally of Algeria’s.
Western Sahara, the country you love to ignore on the map of Africa, is currently partially under control by the Polisario Front, a pro-independence group supported by Algeria.
French President Emmanuel Macron told Moroccan authorities that he believes Western Sahara should be under Morocco’s control and that he would invest French money to that cause.
Tensions further peaked in November after Algeria arrested French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, a critic of the government in Algiers.
As always, a discussion is in order. French interior minister, Noel Barrot, wrote yesterday on X, saying it was in both countries’ best interest to resume dialogue as soon as possible and “honor commitments made on March 31st.”
Still…a quick resolution looks as likely as a cat following instructions. Algeria’s pressing concern is still extraditing Amir Bukhors from France. They’ve issued nine international warrants against him, all of which France has rejected. -BO.
Harvard can say bye to federal cash: Trump
Sophie Park/New York Times
The oldest and richest university in the US refused to accept policy changes proposed by the Trump administration, which threatened to withhold $9 billion in federal funding over what it considers the school’s insufficient response to antisemitism. In a letter to the Harvard community, the university’s president said it “will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” saying the government was unlawfully trying to dictate teaching and operations at Harvard. Hours later, the administration said it was freezing $2.26 billion in grants and contracts for Harvard. The response stands in contrast to fellow Ivy League university Columbia, which has agreed to several demands in hopes of getting federal funding restored.
“Fish are to ocean floor animals what birds are to land animals.”
Around the continent
Trade Panel International
Maldives has officially prohibited Israeli nationals from vacationing in the country in a show of support to Palestine.
Two Belgian nationals were arraigned in a Kenyan court yesterday over attempts to smuggle a class of highly protected ants to sell as pets.
Starting May 1st, foreign buyers will no longer be able to buy artisanally mined gold in Ghana.
Tanzania’s main opposition party, CHADEMA, has been banned from taking part in this year’s presidential election.
Reply