04 June 2023; MEMO: Egypt and Israel are to hold emergency security meetings after yesterday's cross-border shootout which left three Israeli soldiers and an Egyptian policeman officer dead, Egypt Independent reported.

June 5 (Reuters) - Cornel West, a progressive political activist and philosopher, announced on Monday that he is launching a third-party 2024 bid for the U.S. presidency.

West said on Twitter that he was running for the White House with the small, leftist People's Party, "fighting to end poverty, mass incarceration, ending wars and ecological collapse, guaranteeing housing, health care, education and living wages for all!"

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four were killed when an unresponsive plane that flew over the nation’s capital crashed in Virginia, leaving behind “highly fragmented” wreckage in a mountainous area that will take days to gather and sort, federal authorities said Monday.

A day after the plane prompted the military to scramble fighter jets, the Federal Aviation Authority said in a brief update that the pilot and three passengers were killed and that the plane was “destroyed” in the crash. Their identities weren’t immediately released.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Kentucky officials say they won’t start paying out $21 million in economic incentives for a proposed electric vehicle battery facility until the company further explains why the U.S. Department of Energy abruptly rejected a $200 million loan for the project after some congressional Republicans argued the firm has improper ties to China.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The bodies of three men have been removed from the site of a collapsed six-story apartment building in Davenport, Iowa, about a week after part of the century-old structure tumbled to the ground, the city’s police chief announced Monday.

“We don’t have any other information at this time that there are any additional people missing,” Chief Jeff Bladel said.

05 June 2023; MEMO: The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has signed an agreement which gives a company in the UAE exclusive export rights of locally extracted gold for 25 years as well as a preferential tax rate of 0.25 per cent. The deal was apparently finalised late last year in an effort to eliminate the Congolese informal, or artisanal, mining sector.

KYIV, June 5 (Reuters) - Moscow said on Monday it had thwarted a major offensive against its forces in eastern Ukraine, but Ukrainian officials dismissed the report and both sides said Kyiv's military had made small gains elsewhere along front lines.

It was unclear whether the attacks represented the start of Ukraine's long-heralded counteroffensive against Russia's invasion, and Ukrainian officials made no mention of any broad, significant new campaign or sidestepped questions on the matter.

03 June 2023; MEMO: The former head of Israel's National Security Council, retired Major General Yaacov Amidror, called for Israel to prepare for war with Hezbollah.

Speaking to Israeli Channel 14, Amidror called for the Israeli army to raise readiness to the highest level for a war against Lebanon.

"We have to be ready for moving on all fronts with the same abilities," Amidror, former National Security Advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urged.

MOSCOW, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Russia will extend its voluntary oil production cut of half a million barrels per day until the end of 2024, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Sunday.

Quoted by Russia's TASS news agency, Novak said: "Russia will extend its voluntary production cut of 500,000 barrels per day until the end of December 2024 as a precautionary measure in coordination with the countries participating in the OPEC+ agreement, which announced voluntary cuts in April."

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Florida appears to have arranged for a group of South American migrants to be transported from Texas to California and dropped off in Sacramento, California’s attorney general said, noting that he’s looking into whether any crimes may have been committed.

If true, the 16 Colombian and Venezuelan migrants who turned up at the Roman Catholic Church diocese’s headquarters in Sacramento on Friday would be the latest to have been moved from a Republican-led state to one led by Democrats.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday that Sweden has met all of Turkiye's demands to join the military alliance, urging Ankara not to veto Stockholm's bid in a meeting scheduled next month in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.

"Membership will make Sweden safer but also make NATO and Turkey stronger," Stoltenberg told journalists in Istanbul yesterday after meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his newly appointed Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan.

04 June 2023; MEMO: Foreign ministers extended congratulations to Hakan Fidan on his appointment as Türkiye's foreign minister after the swearing-in ceremony of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Anadolu reports.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov conveyed his congratulations to Fidan and wished him "great success in this honorable position." Bayramov expressed confidence that the bonds of brotherhood and alliance between Azerbaijan and Türkiye would be further strengthened.