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Sentenced to death for tweeting .. by X’s second largest shareholder

A Saudi court has handed down a death sentence to Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a 54-year-old retired Saudi teacher, based solely on his online activity, including tweets and YouTube videos he viewed, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.

The conviction came from the Specialized Criminal Court, Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism tribunal, on July 10, 2023. The court found al-Ghamdi guilty of multiple criminal offenses solely related to his peaceful expression on social media platforms.

The court relied on evidence from al-Ghamdi’s tweets, retweets, and YouTube activity to sentence him to death. Human Rights Watch condemned the verdict, considering it a disturbing escalation of the Saudi government’s crackdown on freedom of expression and peaceful dissent. The organization called for the verdict to be overturned.

You can read more on the matter here.

What’s going on?

• Canada Issues LGBTQ+ Discrimination Travel Advisory For US (theDeepDive)

• When Alberta’s Green Grid Met Reality’s Challenges, Residents Were Urged to Cut Power Usage or Risk Blackouts (theDeepDive)

• Burger King must face lawsuit claiming its Whoppers are too small (Reuters)

• Potential Judicial Favoritism in Canada’s Liberal Party Fundraising Events (theDeepDive)

• San Francisco Properties Seek Drastic Value (And Tax) Cuts (theDeepDive)

• Rising caffeine levels spark calls for ban on energy drink sales to children (Reuters)

• Liberals Still Don’t Know What to Do About the Housing Crisis (theDeepDive)

• Germany’s Tug-of-War On Nuclear Energy Drums Up As Election Nears (theDeepDive)

• Lego CEO Hints at New Movie After Rival Barbie’s Blockbuster Run (Bloomberg)

• NDP MP Receives Backlash for Tweet About Death of Woman Who Was Denied A Transplant (theDeepDive)

What’s the latest?

• Rogers Wins Again: Canada's Competition Tribunal has ruled that the Competition Bureau must pay approximately $13 million to Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications for their legal expenses incurred during the court battle after the failed attempt to block the $20-billion merger between the two telecom firms. The tribunal deemed the Commissioner of Competition's approach to block the merger as "unreasonable."

• US New Job Growth Slows: Job creation in the United States slowed more than expected in August, as reported by ADP, with private employers adding 177,000 jobs, falling short of the revised July total of 371,000. The result was below economists' expectations of 200,000 jobs added for August. The report suggests that the U.S. economy might be facing pressure from higher interest rates and that the labor market's strength could be moderating.

• Gabon Coup: Military officers in Gabon have seized power and placed President Ali Bongo under house arrest shortly after the country's election body declared his victory for a third term. The officers announced on television that they were cancelling the election results, closing borders, and dissolving state institutions. The move follows a tense election that was expected to extend the Bongo family's long-standing rule.

• Metro Strikes: Metro Inc. and Unifor have reached a tentative agreement after a month-long strike involving thousands of the grocer's employees across the Greater Toronto Area. Details of the new agreement were not immediately available, but it is expected to address issues related to wages, working conditions, and job security.

• Overtime Pay For Salaried Workers?: The Biden administration has introduced a proposed rule to extend mandatory overtime pay to approximately 3.6 million salaried workers, surpassing the threshold set by an Obama-era rule that was invalidated by the court. The U.S. Department of Labor's proposal would require employers to provide overtime premiums to workers earning a salary of less than $1,059 per week (about $55,000 per year).

BRICS South Africa 2023

The stock market and stuff

• Funds punished for owning too few Nvidia shares after stunning 230% rally (Reuters)

• Grayscale Wins Lawsuit Against SEC Over Bitcoin ETF (theDeepDive)

• Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant Will Share JBL Smart Speaker (Bloomberg)

In the juniors

• QYOU Media Touts Record-Breaking Revenue Growth In Q2 2023 (theDeepDive)

• Lithium Chile: US$1.8 Billion Pre-Tax NPV(8%) At Arizaro – With Michelle DeCecco (theDeepDive)

• Eloro Resources Reports 1.15 Billion Ounce Silver Equivalent Resource Estimate At Iska Iska (theDeepDive)

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