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In Saudi Arabia, a pirate TV network provides a World Cup lifeline

Saudi Arabia’s national soccer team will take the field at the World Cup for the first time in 12 years on Thursday, opening the tournament with a match against host Russia in Moscow that will be watched by hundreds of millions around the world.

The millions of Saudi Arabians watching at home, meanwhile, will be doing so illegally thanks to a dispute with neighboring Qatar that has been simmering for more than 150 years but has reached its boiling point over the last year.

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