Washington offers Kiev more US military intelligence to battle Russia
US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has reportedly lifted some restrictions on intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, sources told Bloomberg on Wednesday, adding that the expanded trade in information is aimed at helping Kiev seize the breakaway republics of the Donbass.
The source claimed Haines told Congress about the expanded intel-sharing after Congressman Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the chief Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, insisted in a classified letter that the Biden administration remove any restrictions on sharing intelligence.
The source claimed Haines told Congress about the expanded intel-sharing after Congressman Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the chief Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, insisted in a classified letter that the Biden administration remove any restrictions on sharing intelligence.
Turner has long criticized the administration’s backing of Ukraine as insufficiently forceful, arguing for more weapons to be sent to Kiev by claiming this would somehow prevent an “actual direct conflict” between the US and Russia. However, Moscow has called for the US and Europe to stop arming Ukraine, claiming that the growing pile of arms sent Kiev’s way amounts to a proxy war against Russia.
Republicans from the Senate Intelligence Committee had previously urged Haines to “proactively share intelligence with the Ukrainians to help them protect, defend, and retake every inch of Ukraine’s sovereign territory” – a category, they argued, including the Crimea peninsula and the Lugansk and Donetsk republics of Donbass.
Last week, the US reportedly lifted some of its geographic limits on transferring “actionable information,” of the sort used in making split-second decisions on the field of battle, allegedly removing language related to specific locations in eastern Ukraine. However, the directive continues to limit information regarding military forces and potential targets across the border in Russia or Belarus.
The White House has previously held back on sharing such information “because that steps over the line to making us participating in the war,” Congressman Adam Smith (D-Washington), who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, said last month. The administration has also refused to give Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky the no-fly zone he initially demanded, viewing it as an escalation that would directly involve the US and NATO in the war.
However, some members of Congress have been more hawkish in their approach. Turner made a point last month of asking the NATO commander for Europe, General Tod Wolters, if he was “satisfied” with the speed at which information was reaching Ukraine.
Wolters replied that he was “comfortable” but would like to see it “speed up,” adding that he would “say that even if it occurs in one second, I want it tomorrow to be in a half a second.”
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BEIRUT, Lebanon, Apr 27 (IPS) – Lebanon is perpetually at a crossroads, one where local, regional, and international interests seem to play against each other—all the more so today with the war in Ukraine.Read the full story, “Lebanon’s Food Crisis Will Get Worseâ€, on globalissues.org →find more fun & mates at SoShow now !
For the first time, the General Assembly will be required “to hold a debate on the situation” that sparks a veto in the Security Council within 10 working days.
The re-elected president’s second term risks being as plagued by protest as his first one
French President Emmanuel Macron sailed to a re-election victory on April 24 with 58.5% of the vote over populist challenger Marine Le Pen’s 41.4%. But his mandate to govern France has taken a hit.
According to a voting day Ipsos Sopra Steria poll, 42% of second-round voters who ultimately chose Macron, only did so to block Le Pen – routinely portrayed as dangerously far-right in the mainstream French press – and not because they overtly support Macron and his program. The President even acknowledged this phenomenon in his victory speech.
The math therefore suggests that Macron’s actual support among the French who bothered to vote in the final round (with a 53-year record high of 28% of them choosing not to) was only about 41%. Hardly the resounding victory portrayed in the fawning praise of European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. “Together, we will move France and Europe forward,” said the bureaucrat, who was elected by even fewer French than Macron (that is, zero).
Variousmedia outlets referred to other European leaders breathing a sigh of relief that Macron remained at the helm of one of the leading European nations – namely German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
But while the post-victory kudos were rolling in, the American Embassy in France had already prepared a much less optimistic message, ahead of the final vote, warning its citizens in France to “expect spontaneous gatherings in cities throughout France after 8pm” which “could potentially turn violent.” Indeed, protesters upset with the result – if not with the lack of ballot choice – hit several French cities on election night.
Macron’s second term risks being dominated by the same street opposition that plagued his first term, when he incrementally but surely aligned France with an agenda friendly to global financial interests – including big pharma vaccine mandates, big-tech digital green passes, and climate-change-backed wealth redistribution, away from the working class.
The sociological details of the final-round voting speak volumes.
Among voters who earn less than €1,250 per month, 56% of them voted for Le Pen over Macron, according to the Ipsos Sopra Steria poll. Another survey, by Harris Interactive, found that 77% of the executive or management class chose Macron, while 67% of blue-collar workers and 57% of employees favored Le Pen.
Macron also benefited overwhelmingly from the backing of 72% of voters over age 65, according to the survey. And 76% of the far left’s second-round voters turned to Macron, undoubtedly to block Le Pen and just as their leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the France Unbowed party, had requested.
Nonetheless, there was an 11% shift in expressed votes from Macron to Le Pen among young people aged 18-24 years compared with the 2017 Macron-Le Pen matchup, no doubt a sign of disappointment with the establishment status quo, despite being tempered by the far-left’s unwillingness to prioritize reining in the establishment over right/left ideology.
All of this adds up to increased division among socio-economic classes and age groups. But a new, striking phenomenon has also emerged. The French overseas territories and ‘départments’ voted overwhelmingly for Le Pen – including the French départment of Mayotte, which has the highest Muslim population in the country. A whopping 59% chose Le Pen, despite being frequently portrayed in the press as anti-Muslim due to her desire for immigration reform and her defense of secularism.
And in Guadeloupe, whose population famously resisted Covid mandates and restrictions (and which Le Pen opposes), the National Rally candidate bested Macron, with 70% of the vote. In Martinique where, like Guadeloupe, many citizens in the Caribbean never forgot how Paris lied to them about the dangers of the carcinogen chlordecone, used on their banana plantations from 1972 to 1993, and therefore harbor a similar distrust of the Covid-19 jab, Le Pen walked away with 61% of the vote.
Next up, Macron risks running into trouble holding his current large majority in the French National Assembly, which has allowed him to ram through virtually any law that he wants. Longstanding tradition suggests that French voters will now use the upcoming legislative elections in June to recalibrate the balance of power away from Macron.
The buzz among the French chattering class is that Macron will have no choice now but to draw lessons from the presidential vote and temper his ambitions accordingly, lest he spend the next five years dealing with the majority of French who didn’t vote for his program. But relying, post-electorally, on Macron showing some kind of potential future goodwill and benevolence, and prioritizing the interests of average citizens over those of establishment elites, doesn’t seem to be the best game plan. And if he doesn’t, expect the rise of anti-establishment populism to continue.
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Apr 27 (IPS) – Lebanon is perpetually at a crossroads, one where local, regional, and international interests seem to play against each other—all the more so today with the war in Ukraine.
