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Egypt

Egyptian Lawyers Accuse Muslim Brotherhood Of Taking $1.5 Billion From Obama

Anti-Morsi protests last year in Cairo
Anti-Morsi protests last year in Cairo

CAIRO - The Muslim Brotherhood has been accused of illegally receiving 10 billion Egytian pounds ($1.5 billion) from the United States government. Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah ordered an immediate investigation into the charges on Thursday.

Lawyers Mohamed Ali Abd al-Wahab and Yasser Mohamed Sayab filed the complaint, in which they quoted Mitt Romney — the Republican candidate in the recent presidential election — as saying that the Obama administration had supported Egypt’s Brotherhood with $1.5 billion.

The lawyers also claimed that the Brotherhood has armed militias that may be the so-called “third party” behind the violent chaos that has occurred during and after the revolution. The complaint quotes a former interior minister as saying that the Brotherhood and Hamas burned 28 police stations and stormed prisons during the January 25 revolution.

These armed militias are trained in the desert between Alexandria and Marsa Matrouh, the lawyers alleged.

The Muslim Brotherhood has not commented on the accusations, nor has Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a longtime member of the organization.

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Economy

Lithium Mines In Europe? A New World Of Supply-Chain Sovereignty

The European Union has a new plan that challenges the long-established dogmas of globalization, with its just-in-time supply chains and outsourcing the "dirty" work to the developing world.

Photo of an open cast mine in Kalgoorlie, Australia.

Open cast mine in Kalgoorlie, Australia.

Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — It is one of the great paradoxes of our time: in order to overcome some of our dependencies and vulnerabilities — revealed in crises like COVID and the war in Ukraine — we risk falling into other dependencies that are no less toxic. The ecological transition, the digitalization of our economy, or increased defense needs, all pose risks to our supply of strategic minerals.

The European Commission published a plan this week to escape this fate by setting realistic objectives within a relatively short time frame, by the end of this decade.

This plan goes against the dogmas of globalization of the past 30 or 40 years, which relied on just-in-time supply chains from one end of the planet to the other — and, if we're being honest, outsourced the least "clean" tasks, such as mining or refining minerals, to countries in the developing world.

But the pendulum is now swinging in the other direction, if possible under better environmental and social conditions. Will Europe be able to achieve these objectives while remaining within the bounds of both the ecological and digital transitions? That is the challenge.

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