Sunday, May 21, 2023

Six In The Morning Sunday 21 May 2023

 





German police investigate possible poisoning of two Russian exiles

One of the women is Natalia Arno, director of the Free Russia Foundation, and the other is a journalist

Berlin police have opened an investigation into the suspected poisoning of two Russian journalists visiting the city for a conference last month organised by the Russian Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The city’s office of criminal investigation confirmed to German media that it had opened the case after reports in the Russian investigative media group Agentsvo were picked up by the Sunday newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Agentsvo reported that the two women had reported symptoms that pointed to possible poisoning around the time of the event at the end of April.


Yevgeny Prigozhin's Meat Grinder

A Moment of Truth for Russia's Wagner Group in Bakhmut

The Russian mercenary force Wagner Group has propped up autocrats from Mali to Syria in recent years. In Bakhmut, however, it now finds itself in the bloody spotlight of the war in Ukraine. Leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has long enjoyed Putin's support – but for how much longer?


The clip that Yevgeny Prigozhin recently posted to his Telegram channel could easily have been mistaken for a poorly made horror film. It shows a field at night, bloodied dead bodies lying in the light of Prigozhin’s flashlight. Also in the video is Prigozhin himself, a brawny, bald man wearing a pistol in a holster. "These are boys from Wagner who died today. Their blood is still fresh!" he growls. The camera pans further, and only now can viewers see that there are four grisly rows of bodies. Dozens of corpses in uniform, many of them with no boots.


Then Prigozhin steps directly in front of the camera and explodes. His face contorted in anger, he hurls insults at Russian military leaders who, he says, are failing to provide him with the munitions he needs. "You will eat their entrails in hell," he yells. "Shoigu, Gerasimov, where is the fucking ammunition?" It is an outburst of rage against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, but staged for better effect and loaded with profanity and contempt. Prigozhin sounds like a bandit challenging his rivals on the outskirts of town at night. Like he would like to turn both Shoigu and Gerasimov into corpses that he could then lay next to his boys.


Heavy fighting in Khartoum hours after Sudan rivals agree to upcoming ceasefire

Residents of Sudan's capital again awoke to heavy clashes Sunday morning just hours after rival generals agreed to an upcoming one-week ceasefire amid ongoing talks in Saudi Arabia.

The ceasefire -- the latest following many successive truces that have been systematically violated -- is set to go into effect at 9:45 pm (1945 GMT) on Monday, the US and Saudi Arabia said in a joint statement.

 The ceasefire "shall remain in effect for seven days and may be extended with the agreement of both parties", the statement added after talks in Jeddah.

Multiple truces have been violated since fighting broke out five weeks ago, which the Saudi foreign ministry acknowledged in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency early Sunday.

"Unlike previous ceasefires, the Agreement reached in Jeddah was signed by the parties and will be supported by a US-Saudi and international-supported ceasefire monitoring mechanism," it said.


El Salvador soccer stadium stampede leaves 12 dead


Local media reported that too many tickets were sold for the match at the Cuscatlan Stadium in the capital of San Salvador. Several of the injured remain in serious condition in the hospital.


At least 12 people died, and some 100 others were seriously injured in a stampede at a soccer stadium in El Salvador, Salvadoran authorities said Sunday.

It was the second deadly crush at a football match globally in six months, after a similar tragedy in Indonesia in October.

What do we know so far?

Civil Defense Agency Director Luis Alonso Amaya said the crush happened on Saturday evening when too many fans try to pack into one section of the Cuscatlan Stadium in the capital of San Salvador.

He said too many tickets had been sold for the match, between FC Alianza and CD FAS, which was quickly called off as a result of the stampede.



Watch: Japan riot police pin G7 protesters to ground in violent scuffle




Violence broke out on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima as riot police wrestled people protesting the meeting of world leaders.

Police could be seen pinning protesters to the ground on Sunday after a brawl broke out.

The demonstration was organised by the far-left extremist "Revolutionary Communist League National Committee", which denounces the G7 summit as a conference of "imperialism for nuclear war".

The G7 comprises the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan – and eight other nations have been invited this year. They're meeting to discuss the war in Ukraine and other foreign policy points - including their relationships with China.




The U.S. Needs Minerals for Electric Cars. Everyone Else Wants Them Too.

The United States is entering an array of agreements to secure the critical minerals necessary for the energy transition, but it’s not clear which of the arrangements can succeed.


Reporting from Washington



For decades, a group of the world’s biggest oil producers has held huge sway over the American economy and the popularity of U.S. presidents through its control of the global oil supply, with decisions by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries determining what U.S. consumers pay at the pump.

As the world shifts to cleaner sources of energy, control over the materials needed to power that transition is still up for grabs.

China currently dominates global processing of the critical minerals that are now in high demand to make batteries for electric vehicles and renewable energy storage. In an attempt to gain more power over that supply chain, U.S. officials have begun negotiating a series of agreements with other countries to expand America’s access to important minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite.












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