Six In The Morning Friday 29 July 2022

 

Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin's war effort in Ukraine

By Nima Elbagir, Barbara Arvanitidis, Tamara Qiblawi, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Mohammed Abo Al Gheit and Darya Tarasova, CNN
Video by Alex Platt and Mark Baron, CNN
Graphics by Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Marco Chacón, Natalie Croker and Henrik Pettersson, CNN

Updated 1400 GMT (2200 HKT) July 29, 2022

Days after Moscow launched its bloody war on Ukraine, a Russian cargo plane stood on a Khartoum runway, a strip of tarmac surrounded by red-orange sand. The aircraft's manifest stated it was loaded with cookies. Sudan rarely, if ever, exports cookies.

A heated debate transpired between officials in a back office of Khartoum International Airport. They feared that inspecting the plane would vex the country's increasingly pro-Russian military leadership. Multiple previous attempts to intercept suspicious Russian carriers had been stopped. Ultimately, however, the officials decided to board the plane.

Inside the hold, colorful boxes of cookies stretched out before them. Hidden just beneath were wooden crates of Sudan's most precious resource. Gold. Roughly one ton of it.

‘It’s barbaric’: UFC champion Francis Ngannou on being smuggled into Europe

The fighter knows the city on the Spain-Morocco border where 23 migrants were killed in June – he crossed there himself

Ashifa Kassam in Madrid

The bright lights of the Las Vegas strip shimmered in the background as Francis Ngannou clicked on the video. Scenes of horror filled his screen; scores of young men, many of them motionless, lying on the bloodstained ground. In one shot, a man lay prone as a Moroccan security officer appeared to beat him with a stick.

The UFC world heavyweight champion instantly recognised the spot along the Spain-Morocco border where the video had been shot. “I couldn’t sleep for two days,” he said.

The images, along with the news that at least 23 people were killed that day after 2,000 attempted to cross the border, played over and over in his mind. “I had to force myself to remember ‘you’re not there any more. Look around, you’re not there any more.’”

Egyptian activist: 'I am disappointed with German politicians'

Sanaa Seif, sister of Alaa Abdel-Fattah, one of Egypt's best-known dissidents, was recently in Berlin. She spoke to DW about her brother's hunger strike and Europe's double standards on Ukraine and the Middle East.

Sanaa Seif isn't allowed to disclose the names of all of the politicians she met with in Germany recently. Some of the lawmakers wanted to keep the meetings private.

That actually tells you a lot, explained the Egyptian 28-year-old, who has recently been touring Europe and the US, advocating for her brother, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, and promoting his recently published book.

"It doesn't make sense to me when I see German politicians shy away from talking about human rights," Seif told DW. "It's like they don't want to rock the boat."

Xi warns Biden not to ‘play with fire’ as two leaders agree to in-person meeting

President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to schedule their first in-person summit during a sometimes tense phone call Thursday where Xi warned the United States not to “play with fire” in Taiwan.

Although this was their fifth phone or video call since Biden took office a year and a half ago, the summit would be their first in-person meeting as leaders. No detail was given on the timing or location.

Biden and Xi “discussed the value of meeting face-to-face and agreed to have their teams follow up to find a mutually agreeable time to do so,” a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Japanese government urges businesses to raise wages on par with price hikes

Japan on Friday urged companies to raise wages on par with price hikes of around 2 percent, a level the central bank has set as its inflation target, so that the world's third-largest economy can complete its exit from deflation.

The government said in its Annual Report on the Japanese Economy and Public Finance that such an economy will block the country from falling into stagflation, at a time when the United States, Europe and others are suffering from price surges fanned by Russia's war against Ukraine.

It was the first such paper compiled under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who pledges to bring about "new capitalism," characterized by a virtuous cycle of growth and redistribution driven by investment into people.

A summer of bomb threats frightens Moldova as war rages nearby

Moldovans fear a Russian invasion as tensions between the breakaway region Transnistria and Chisinau heat up.

By Andrei Popoviciu and Daniela Calmis

Published On 29 Jul 202229 Jul 2022

On July 5, Moldovan authorities were alerted via email that more than 50 state institutions had been mined that day.

It was the start of a summer of bomb threats.

Since then, more than 100 similar warnings have been sent to landmarks, including the Chisinau International Airport, parliament and government buildings, the Supreme Court, commercial centres, hospitals and churches around the country.

All were false alarms.