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WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - Iran has continued supplying weapons and drugs that fuel the Yemen war despite its agreement to restore diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking said on Thursday.

The Chinese-brokered accord reached in March, talks between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, and a ceasefire that largely has held despite expiring in October have boosted prospects for an end to the conflict.

But, Lenderking told reporters in an online briefing on his latest visit to the region, Iran is still supplying arms and drugs that help fuel the war that erupted in 2014 and has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

"The Iranians have continued to smuggle weaponry and narcotics toward this conflict and we are very concerned that this would continue despite the benefits that would come from a Saudi-Iran deal. So I think that is a space we have to watch," Lenderking said.

"Despite the fact that we welcomed an agreement between the Saudis and the Iranians, I remain concerned about Iran's role," he said, contending that Tehran has trained Houthi fighters and equipped them "to fight and attack Saudi Arabia."

Iran denies arming the Houthis, who seized Yemen's capital Sanaa after ousting the government and control large swaths of the country.

The war widely has been seen as a proxy fight between Saudi Arabia, which led a military coalition that intervened in 2015, and Iran.

U.S. officials have accused Iran of violating U.N. resolutions by supplying the Houthis with drones and missiles for cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia, although there have been no such strikes in more than a year.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and left millions dependent on international aid.

The Saudi-Iran deal alone will not end the conflict, which only can be settled through negotiations between the Yemeni sides, Lenderking said.

The United States will not reopen its embassy in Sanaa until it is confident the war is over and a "very firm and irreversible" peace process is underway, he said.

Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Editing by Doina Chiacu;

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iran still smuggling weapons, narcotics to Yemen, U.S. envoy says - Reuters

Rumors began to swirl in 2020 that Tom Cruise, the actor who loves to do his own stunts, would soon make history, filming the first feature-length movie to be shot in space. According to the BBC, Cruise began talks with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX to produce a movie aboard the International Space Station.

That film is still expected to happen, but Russian filmmakers beat them all to the historical punch, releasing "Vyzov" ("The Challenge"), filmed entirely aboard the ISS in 2021 and released this year.

"Vyzov'' is about Zhenya Belyaeva (Yulia Peresild, "Battle for Sevastopol"), a surgeon who has to go to the International Space Station to perform heart surgery on an ailing cosmonaut who cannot return to Earth. Real-world cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy plays the fictional cosmonaut with a heart problem.

The titular challenge for Belyaeva isn't just performing open heart surgery in zero gravity, it's also being taken seriously by an all-male crew aboard the ISS.

The movie was produced by Russian state media to promote the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, which helped to produce the film. Roscosmos also held the casting call that hired Peresild for the movie. Not only did she have to submit an audition tape like any other actress, she had to undergo the same kind of medical, mental and physical tests as any other cosmonaut.

She was, after all, going to space for real.

Peresild and her understudy had to prepare for the shoot with centrifuge and vibration testing, zero-gravity training flights and parachute training. Their preparations for the film were extensively documented by Russian state media leading up to their departure for the space station.

Anton Shkaplerov, another real-life cosmonaut, accompanied Peresild and director Klim Shipenko to the ISS in October 2021. They filmed "Vyzov" there in 12 days before returning to Earth via a parachute landing in Kazakhstan. The actress and director had to then undergo a 10-day rehabilitation program to readjust to the effects of gravity.

It was "part of a large-scale scientific and educational project, which also includes a series of documentaries to be shot about the rocket and space industry enterprises and specialists involved in the manufacturing of launch vehicles, spacecraft and ground space infrastructure," Roscosmos said in a statement.

Russia invaded Ukraine just a few months after principal photography wrapped on the film. In July 2022, Russia announced it would leave the International Space Station entirely by 2024.

"Vyzov" premiered in theaters across Russia on April 20, 2023, and while it's the first feature-length film shot entirely in space, it's not the only movie shot aboard the ISS.

In 2002, the documentary IMAX: Space Station, narrated by Tom Cruise, was released. It was the first 3D film shot in space. In 2012, Richard Garriott, a businessman and space tourist, released the eight-minute-long "Apogee of Fear," the first narrative film shot aboard the ISS.

As of January 2023, SpaceX and Cruise were still planning to make a movie aboard the ISS, and still had plans for making history: the first spacewalk for a feature film.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on LinkedIn.

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Russians Beat Tom Cruise and Elon Musk to the First Film Shot in Space - Military.com

Amnesty International has urged Iran to drop the imminent execution of six ethnic Arab men and three other prisoners whose gave tortured-tainted confessions.

The international rights body said the prisoners arrested in the oil-rich Khuzestan province had been denied their right to a fair trial and their detention is arbitrary.

The execution of Adnan Ghobeishavi, 25, Moein Khanfari, 28, Mohammad Reza Moghaddam, 29, Salem Mousavi, 39, Habib Deris, 42, and Ali Majdam, 43 could take place at any time after a Supreme Court ruling on March 6 upheld the sentences against them.

In a separate tweet Amnesty International also voiced concern over the fate of three other detainees in Esfahan.

Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi are at imminent risk of execution at central Esfahan prison (also known as Dastgerd prison) after Irans Supreme Court upheld their unjust convictions and death sentences in early May 2023.

After nationwide anti-government protests last year, which is still not fully contained, the Iranian regime has embarked on a wave of executions that has seen dozens hanged this year. Activists are concerned that the executions aim to intimidate the population from further protests.

Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi

The regime used overwhelming force and military weapons to kill more than 500 civilians during the protests. Hundreds of others received permanent bodily injuries, including loss of eyes because of shotgun pellets fired at the faces of protesters. More than 20,000 were arrested.

The London-basedhuman rights watchdog said on May 12 that the six should have access to their families, lawyers and adequate medical care pending their release.

Their group trial was grossly unfair. The men were denied lawyers of their own choosing and were never allowed access to their court-appointed lawyer, even at trial. The authorities have barred them and their lawyer from accessing their casefile and verdict, Amnesty said.

According to the report, the men's "torture-tainted" confessions were used by the Revolutionary Court in Ahvaz to sentence them to death on February 14 on the charge of "waging war against God" following the armed operations conducted by a separatist group in which members of the security forces were killed.

Amnesty said that the men, who have denied the charges, were neither allowed lawyers of their own choosing nor access to their court-appointed lawyers during trial, and that the authorities prevented them from seeing their case files and verdicts.

IRGC agents subjected one of the detainees to "sleep deprivation, waterboarding, electric shocks, beatings, and hanging upside down while submerging his head in water," according to the group.

Amnesty expressed concern that three other Iranian men are at imminent risk of execution in Isfahan after the Supreme Court affirmed their "unjust" convictions earlier this month.

Since late April, at least 60 people have been executed across the country for charges that under international law should not result in the death penalty, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

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Amnesty Urges Iran To Halt Planned Execution Of Nine Detainees -

After gaining notice from Twitter owner Elon Musk, Miladys non-fungible token (NFT) collection increased, bringing comparisons to Musks handling of dogecoin (DOGE).

American entrepreneur Elon Musk created a meme on May 10 using photographs from the Milady nonfungible tokens (NFT) collection. Soon after, the Milady NFTs floor price increased from 3.8 Ether to as far as 7.3 ETH before dropping to 5.69 ETH.

Milady is an album of 10,000 anime profile pictures NFTs that was created in 2021 by the digital arts company Remilia and is inspired by street style tribes. Remilia is a series created by artist Charlotte Fang, who also invented the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

Musk tweeted a meme from the Milady Makers NFT community, which has since been watched more than 32 million times. Nobody knew that Musk was arranging a rocket launch this week, but thats precisely what occurred. This week, sales of Milady NFTs reached a record high of US$217 million as they propelled the rest of the market along with them.

The term Milady is a play on the phrase my lady, which originally denoted a noblewoman in a courteous manner but has now come to refer to nice guys and overdone gallantry in online forums. Elon Musk made a reference to the moniker four years before the Milady NFT tweet, adding, My shield is yours.

Milady is a profile-pic (PFP) NFT that comprises of 9,823 pictures of faces with wide-eyed, innocent expressions. Charlotte Fang, also known as Charlie Fang, the projects originator, has come under fire for disseminating conspiracy theories and offensive statements despite the collections innocent appearance.

After debates, the floor price of Milady NFTs decreased by more than 50% in May 2022. Milady has maintained its appeal throughout Web 3 communities despite controversy. Su Zhu, co-founder of the bankrupt Singaporean hedge firm Three Arrows Capital, is an ardent Milady collector and routinely promotes the collection to his followers in addition to being supported by Elon Musk. The collection has had a total volume traded on OpenSea of 39,659 ETH as of right now.

Because Binance added Bitcoin NFTs into its marketplace, Ordinals now have a new channel to promote to the general public without having to be tech-savvy. NFTs on the OG blockchain were booming, and BRC-20s, a new variant of Ordinal, were gaining favor. BRC-20s are the meme currencies of Ethereum for Bitcoin, but they also function fundamentally in a similar way to an NFT collection. In a subsequent issue of On Deck, well provide a technical examination of these new Bitcoin Ordinals.

This week saw two developments related to the Pudgy Penguins initiative, which strengthened their heartwarming tale. They first revealed a new collaboration with the WME talent agency, which puts them closer to television, video games, and other forms of popular entertainment. The cute team then announced that they had secured US$9 million in startup capital as a response. Not bad for a project that was on the verge of failure prior to being acquired by marketing guru Luca Schnetzler.

Although its doubtful that the Pudgy Penguins NFT sales had much of an influence on the market, the good news arriving during a bear market was a pleasant respite and served as a brief reminder to everyone that there is actual growth taking place in this country.

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Milady spikes similar to Dogecoin After the Elon Musk's Tweet - The Coin Republic

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott to break ground at the site of the electric vehicle maker's new lithium refinery in Corpus Christi on Monday.

Tesla plans to invest $375 million to build the facility on the Gulf coast that will help it secure a domestic supply of lithium hydroxide, a key ingredient used to make batteries for its electric vehicles, and its home- and utility-scale batteries.

Musk said that Tesla is aiming to produce enough battery-grade lithium at the refinery to manufacture one million vehicles per year, and to produce more lithium than the rest of North America's refining capacity combined there.

Mining company Albemarle announced plans to invest $1.3 billion in a new lithium processing facility in South Carolina in March.

According to filings with the Texas Comptroller's office, Tesla specifically plans to construct a "battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility," and other "facilities to support other types of battery materials processing, refining and manufacturing and ancillary manufacturing operations in support of Tesla's sustainable product line."

The company promised in its filings that "the process Tesla will use is innovative and designed to consume less hazardous reagents and create usable byproducts compared to the conventional process."

On Monday, Musk claimed, "There's no toxic emissions or anything -- you could live right in the middle of the refinery and not suffer any ill effects."

Tesla's battery raw material and recycling leader, Turner Caldwell, said at the event that the company would find "beneficial use opportunities" for the byproduct of its lithium, which they expect to be mostly sand and limestone.

Typically, refining ore into battery-grade lithium requires an industrial process that includes crushing raw material, heating it at a high temperature, and mixing it in a slurry with acids. One of the acids used in lithium processing typically is hydrochloric acid, which is a hazardous air pollutant under the U.S. Clean Air Act.

Caldwell and Musk did not disclose the specific chemistry the company would rely upon for processing.

Last year in April, Musk said Tesla may need to get into lithium refiningbecause the cost of the metal had "gone to insane levels." Lithium prices have significantly declined since he made those remarks.

However, China still controls more than half of the world's lithium processing and refining capacity while the U.S. has recently controlled just 1%. Musk said the availability of battery-grade lithium was a "fundamental chokepoint" for the electric vehicle industry and others.

Governor Abbott, a Republican, praised Elon Musk as the greatest entrepreneur on Earth.

"Texas wants to be able to be self-reliant, not dependent upon any foreign hostile nation for what we need," he said.

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Elon Musk and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott break ground on Tesla lithium refinery - CNBC