The global logistics center will be used to store and export Russian produce
Egypt and Russia are in talks on creating an international logistics hub for grain in the Suez Canal region, news website Marsal Qatar reported on Tuesday.
The facility, linking to one of the world’s busiest waterways, would be used to store Russian wheat and distribute it to nearby countries.
On February 15, the Egyptian trade ministry said it had held “a number of meetings with the Russian side on the matter,” with Moscow’s representatives agreeing to study the project.
Last year, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said his country was expecting to ramp up grain purchases from Russia, citing it as a priority in bilateral relations.
The article cited Nour Nada, head of the Eurasian Peoples’ Assembly office in Egypt, as saying Cairo is the world’s largest importer of wheat, buying 12 million tons a year, and that Russia accounts for about 80% of that total.
In July-September last year – the first three months of the 2023-2024 crop season – Cairo purchased 2 million tons of wheat from Russia. According to the Russian trade mission in Egypt, the North African nation contracted a further 1 million tons of imports in December.
During a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 20, Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev reported that Moscow had successfully delivered 200,000 tons of wheat to six low-income African nations, free of charge, making it the biggest humanitarian initiative ever conducted by Russia.
https://www.rt.com/africa/593913-moscow-wheat-hub-suez-canal/
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below