Cobalt is the chemical element found in almost every tech gadget that uses a lithium-powered battery on the market today - a smartphone, tablet or laptop requires a few grams of it, while an electric vehicle requires 10kg. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Tesla and others all insist that they hold cobalt suppliers to the highest of standards, and that they only trade with smelters and refiners who adhere to their codes of conduct.

But the photos and videos that DailyMail.com can share today from some of the largest mines in Africa - where many of these suppliers get their cobalt - tell a different story. Barefoot children covered in chemicals, endlessly smashing open rocks for $2-a-day; exhausted new mothers with their babies strapped to them, sifting through nets of rocks in the hopes of finding the precious cobalt.

Those are among the powerful images obtained by Siddharth Kara over the last several years in the Katanga region, that can be shared now ahead of the publication of his new book - Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives.

“The US government is concerned about the extent to which Wagner is interfering in sovereign countries’ internal politics, violating human rights, and robbing them of their mineral wealth,” according to a “senior administration official” cited in the report. It’s hard to ignore that the presence of the Wagner Group seems to be concentrated in locations already known for being targeted by clandestine US and allied activities.

The real problem with the Wagner Group for the US and its allies is that it competes with Western counterparts and could serve to protect the interests of clients that depart from the Western agenda. If the US government has a problem with that now, they might do well to remember that they were the ones who set that particular ball rolling in the first place.

Vietnam being one of the theatres of the Cold War, the US decided to intervene to face the progression of communists in the country. According to the domino theory, Vietnam needed to stay within the Western sphere of influence. For the sake of democracy all over the world, obviously.

Interestingly enough, the propaganda machine still has it that the US did not lose the Vietnam War – South Vietnam lost. Even Wikipedia does not mention that it was a US defeat: The French were defeated, but in the case of the US, it was simply a “withdrawal.”

“I hate the fact that it was five Black men that actually did this to another Black man,” Wells told MSNBC. “My son probably was their age.” The 29-year-old was near his mother’s home when it happened and called out for her as he was being beaten.

“They just brought disgrace to themselves,” she continued. “I’m not an evil person, my son is not an evil person … I pray for (the officers’) families because their families didn’t deserve any of this either.”

There were four large explosions at the military industry factory, documented on social media, against a facility developing advanced weapons. The damage goes far beyond the “minor roof damage” that the Islamic Republic claimed earlier Sunday and has falsely claimed in past incidents.

Few organizations globally, besides the Mossad, are believed to possess the advanced and surgical strike capabilities displayed in the operation. Multiple large drones with significant amounts of explosives were involved and hit their targets with pinpoint accuracy.

The US has adopted a more aggressive tone with Iran since it provided drones to Russia in the war with Ukraine and has demonstrated even more impatience recently with Tehran’s failure to return to the 2015 nuclear deal.

Turns out, that was easier said than done. Cut to eight months later, and 29 of NATO’s 30 members have signed off on expanding the alliance, but there’s still one holdout blocking the whole thing: Turkey.

Erdogan has dug his heels in — amid a critical election season in Turkey — over claims that Sweden harbors militants from a separatist Kurdish group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group designated as terrorists by the United States and European Union that Turkey has been fighting for more than 30 years.

Could Finland and Sweden wait out this political rough patch in Turkey before joining the alliance? Or will Erdogan keep playing spoiler even after election season? Stay tuned.

Germany also needs to replenish its military hardware stocks, including replacements for the 14 Leopard tanks that Berlin agreed to send to Ukraine to help repel Russia's invasion, the new defence chief said.

Germany's decision to suspend compulsory military service in 2011 was a mistake, he added, saying he was hesitant to place a burden upon young generations but was open to discussing a new model to strengthen the relationship between citizens and the state.

As is reported, the council should also ensure that “politically uncomfortable decisions” be implemented in the future “independently of opportunity costs.” How the security strategy will relate to two key US strategy documents, published last year, also remains unclear.

The USA’s National Security Strategy and its National Defense Strategy characterize not Russia, but China as the primary adversary, against which even allied states should take action. Baerbock is fully in agreement with this, while Chancellor Scholz is more reticent. “Billions more in long-term investments” in its military capacity cannot be circumvented. Germany, in particular, can no longer ignore “the growing importance of nuclear weapons.” A “modern nuclear deterrence” must be discussed.

Scholz is convinced that a “multipolar world” is emerging, whose rise is inevitable. This is not only about China’s growing strength, but also of the continuously growing influence of countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, South Korea, as well as countries in Africa and in South America. In the multipolar world, the EU must fight for and maintain its strategic sovereignty. The implementation of an independent China policy, diverging from US policy in significant aspects, would be a possible litmus test.

Foreseeing a deadlocked struggle between Moscow and Kyiv, Kennan made detailed suggestions at the time about how Washington should deal with a conflict that pitted an independent Ukraine against Russia. He returned to this subject half a century later. Kennan, then in his 90s, cautioned that the eastward expansion of NATO would doom democracy in Russia and ignite another Cold War.

Kennan probably knew Russia more intimately than anyone who ever served in the US government. Even before he arrived in Moscow in 1933 as a 29-year-old aide to the first US ambassador the Soviet Union, he had mastered Russian and could pass as a native. Operating from an office next door to the secretary of state, Kennan helped craft the Marshall Plan and other major mid-century initiatives.

Washington and its allies “are destroying world peace and regional security by handing over an astronomical amount of military equipment to Ukraine, completely ignoring Russia's safety concerns,” she said, adding that the decision to supply tanks poses “a major threat and challenge to the strategic security of Russia.”

The terrorist, identified as Alqam Khayri, a 21-year-old resident of eastern Jerusalem, was shot dead by police while attempting to flee. A second attack took place the morning after when a 13-year-old terrorist opened fire on a group of Israelis outside the Old City of Jerusalem, severely wounding two people, a father and son. The younger victim, an off-duty soldier, managed to shoot the terrorist, as did another member of the group, wounding him.

“Whoever tries to harm us – we will harm him, and those who help him,” Netanyahu said at the start of an emergency meeting of the security cabinet.

“As per the decision, which cited the scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority, the additive is safe to use in a whole range of products, including but not limited to cereal bars, biscuits, pizza, pasta-based products, and whey powder.” But don’t worry, because the crickets first have to be checked to make sure they “discard their bowel content” before being frozen. Lovely stuff.

The European Union also recently approved the use of Alphitobius diaperinus, otherwise known as the lesser mealworm, for human consumption. As we have exhaustively documented, globalist technocrats and climate change activists have consistently lobbied for people to start eating bugs to fight global warming, despite the practice being linked to parasitic infections.

“I’ve said already in the last days – yes, we have to do more to defend Ukraine. Yes, we have to do more also on tanks,” Baerbock said. “But the most important and the crucial part is that we do it together and that we do not do the blame game in Europe, because we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other.”

The comments from the foreign minister came just hours before Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany would indeed be sending military tanks to Ukraine. However, the German leader expressly said that this did not represent an act of war against Russia, maintaining the Western line that the tanks are allegedly only intended for defensive purposes.