“It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.“ — DT, 28 Feb. 2026
“I might have forced [Israel’s] hand. If we didn’t do it, [Iran] were going to attack first.“ — DT, 03 March 2026
“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough“ — DT, 08 March 2026
“There will be no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender.“ — DT, 06 March 2026
“I think there’s a very good chance we’re going to end up in a deal. And so we’re giving it five days and then we’re going to see where that takes it.” — DT, 23 March 2026
“I don’t want to do a ceasefire. You know you don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side” — DT, 20 March 2026
“[The Iranian Government] want very much to make a deal. We’d like to make a deal, too.”— DT, 20 March 2026
“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it.” — Pete Hegseth, 02 March 2026
“So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked.“ — DT, 16 March 2026
“[NATO countries] don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!” — DT, 20 March 2026
Archive for Saudi Arabia
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, autoritarian, baby Trump, Bahrain, BBC, cliffs, Derailed Trump, designators, Donald Trump, European Union, humanism, Iran, Israel, Kuwait, nationalism, populism, Qatar, quotes, Saudi Arabia, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, UAE, US elections 2024, US politics, war crimes on April 3, 2026 by xi'an
and it is getting worse… [verbatim]
Posted in Books, Kids, pictures, Travel with tags Agent Orange, America, autoritarian, baby Trump, Brazil, Chinese universities, cliffs, climate change, Cop30, Donald Trump, foreign students, French students, House of Representatives, humanism, intellectual property, Jamal Khashoggi, liberty of press, nationalism, Nobel Peace Prize, populism, quotes, Saudi Arabia, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, theocracy, unilateral nuclear disarmament, US elections 2024, US politics, xenophobia on December 11, 2025 by xi'an
“Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis” — DT, 30 Oct. 2025
“The Green New Scam would have killed America if President Trump had not been elected to implement his commonsense energy agenda – which is focused on utilizing the liquid gold under our feet to strengthen our grid stability and drive down costs for American families and businesses” — Taylor Rogers, White House spokeswoman, 31 Oct
“It’s not that I want [Chinese national students], but I view it as a business. [Draconian cuts to hiring international students could] destroy our entire university and college system.” — DT, 17 Nov. 2025
“The president being frank and open and honest to your faces [by cutting off Catherine Lucey by `Quiet, piggy!´], rather than hiding behind your backs, is, frankly, a lot more respectful than what you saw in the last administration.” — Karoline Leavitt, press secretary, 18 Nov 2025
“You’re mentioning someone [Jamal Khashoggi] that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen. But [Mohammed bin Salman] knew nothing about it. You don’t have to embarrass our guests.” — DT, 19 Nov. 2025
“Do you think the French [students in the US] are better [wrt spying and stealing intellectual property], really?… I’m not so sure” — DT, 10 Nov. 2025
“The writer of the [New York Time] story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out,”— DT, 26 Nov. 2025
short trip to a theocracy
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags blogging, conference, KAUST, Mohammed bin Salman, political prisoner, probabilistic numerics, Raif Badawi, Saudi Arabia, Statistical learning, theocracy, visa on June 30, 2023 by xi'an
Besides attending a workshop on my research themes and meeting researchers from that field, a supplementary incentive for attending Stochastic Numerics and Statistical Learning was to catch a glimpse of Saudi Arabia and its idiosyncrasies. While this is far from my first time visiting a Muslim theocracy, remembering a most enlightening (if penniless) backpacking trip to Morocco in the summer of 1982, Saudi Arabia is in a class of its own, as I experienced from filling a visa application where I had to enter my religion (non-Muslim was enough, though, while atheist would not have worked!), to flying on Saudia Airlines, with the broadcasted travelling Du’a before take-off, plus an extra religious announcement when flying over Mecca, to (early) Hadj pilgrims disembarking from planes wearing only the ihram, to the absolute prohibition of alcohol, even on the KAUST campus. Even though there are signs of recent liberalisation, in the sense of less restrictions imposed to women, probably helped by the timid opening to (non-religious) tourism, if not at all of democratisation, as show by the repression of dissenters, cf. Amnesty annual report, or the current plight of Raif Badawi.
Obviously, these are just quick impressions based on being no more than a few hours in the (real) country, between the airport visits and the taxi trip back from KAUST, since the city campus has had its own regulations from its creation ex nihilo (or de deserto) in 2009. Accommodating more foreign students and faculty than local ones and running quite efficiently, thanks to the enormous budget provided by the Saudi monarchy, which also proves a Damocles sword, were the kingdom choose to allocate this money differently, to one of the many Hercules projects pushed by Mohammed bin Salman, also chairman of the university.
Red Sea [jatp]
Posted in pictures, Travel with tags jatp, KAUST, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia, sunset, Thuwal on June 13, 2023 by xi'an
gamin’ the rankin’
Posted in Books, Travel, University life with tags affiliations, bibliometrics, Clarivate, KAUST, KSU, Nature, ranking, Saudi Arabia, Shanghai, Shanghai ranking on June 12, 2023 by xi'an
