News of the World

[kyonides]

USA

---

Arrests in Georgia

4 Chinese Nationals Arrested as Georgia Authorities Allege Illicit $22 Million Marijuana Farm

Law enforcement officials in Georgia have arrested four Chinese nationals in connection with a Marijuana grow operation with an estimated street value of $22.3 million.

The four Chinese nationals—identified as Zhu Sheng Bing, Jinpeng Ma, Chenhui Shu, and Wei Sheng Deng—were arrested and booked last week, following a joint operation involving the Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. Both agencies announced the arrests during a joint press briefing on Tuesday.

The Georgia Department of Agriculture and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office first began investigating an alleged food manufacturing facility located in Pierce County about a month ago, with suspicions of illicit activity taking place at the facility. In particular, Pierce County Sheriff Ramsey Bennett said people working at the facility told an undercover detective from his office that the facility was “growing and processing an edible food product,” which prompted him to contact Georgia Agricultural Commissioner Tyler Harper.

While executing a search warrant last week, Georgia law enforcement officials reportedly seized 11,153 Marijuana plants.

“This was the largest seizure ever in Pierce County and I think a pretty large seizure anywhere in the state,” Mr. Bennett said. “So we’re just pleased to have this part of the criminal element in jail and this much dope off the street.”

The Pierce County Sheriff said the four Chinese nationals remain in jail. Arrest records for Mr. Deng indicate he is wanted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“One does have an ICE detainer,” Mr. Bennett said, referring to a request from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to law enforcement agencies to notify them when they detain an individual who is already wanted for potential immigration violations.

Mr. Bennett said the other three Chinese nationals “appear to be in the country legally.” Mr. Bennett said all four Chinese nationals are currently being held without bail.

Government

Kathy Hochul Moves Forward with Plan to Prioritize Illegal Immigrants for NY State Jobs

At the end of January, Hochul approved a plan for the state to hire 4,000 illegal aliens for entry-level state jobs. Not only is the state preparing to put illegals at the head of the line, but the plan Hochul approved eliminates several requirements for illegals to be eligible for the jobs.

The rules requiring applicants to take the civil service exam and to have a high school diploma have been eliminated.

The aim is to get illegals into state jobs faster once they get approved work permits.

The Civil Service Commission approved the plan on January 18, according to Spectrum News:

Hochul also claimed that she hears from business owners all across the state pleading with her to approve illegals for jobs.

“Hotel owners and restaurant owners coming to me: ‘Can you send some of the migrants up here? We need them.’ I hear this in every corner of the state,” the governor said.

Naturally, New York City’s Democrat Mayor Eric Adams also favors the plan to lower the bar to get illegals into government and private sector jobs quickly.

“I would love to get migrants and asylum seekers to help with the lifeguard shortage. We’ve been successful in getting almost 30,000 people to [file] applications, including work authorization, asylum, TPS — we want more,” he said.

In selling the plan to put illegals ahead of citizens, New York State Senate Labor Committee chair Jessica Ramos, a Democrat, conflated “New Yorkers” with the migrants for whom she was advocating.

Defense Secretary Admits Being Unreachable in Hospital, Blames Staff for Not Telling Biden Sooner

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin claimed there was no break in the chain of command when he was hospitalized in January for days without telling President Biden, but admitted on Thursday it was actually his aides who made a decision to transfer his authorities to his deputy when he could not be reached and blamed his staff for not telling the president about his hospitalization sooner.

Austin made the admission under questioning from Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), a Marine veteran, who asked him if he had made the decision to transfer his authorities to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks on January 2, after he entered critical care.

“I did not. The decision was whether or not we, they had reached a point threshold where I could not communicate or have access to secure communications, and so that triggers the process –,” Austin began.

“So your condition was severe such that you could not personally action the transfer of authority?” Gallagher pressed.

Austin said it was not his physical condition, but the fact that his staff could “not get to him” and he did not have access to secure communications.

“The issue was number one, they could not get to me, but number two, it was access to secure communications. It had nothing to do with my physical condition at the time,” Austin said.

“And yet the decision was made. So who made the decision?” Gallagher asked.

“Well, as the, as my assistants conferred, they agreed that we had reached that threshold and they should put the process in place and they did and I think it was the right decision,” Austin admitted.

Joe Biden’s White House Begins Referring to Illegal Aliens as ‘Newcomers’

President Joe Biden’s White House has begun referring to border crossers and illegal aliens as “newcomers” and “people who are in the country” — a terminology distinction that conflicts with federal immigration law.

On Thursday — while promoting a Senate bill to preserve his catch and release network at the United States-Mexico border — Biden’s White House made a passing reference to border crossers and illegal aliens, calling them “newcomers” to the U.S.

The White House fact sheet on the Senate bill reads:

The bill also includes $1.4 billion for cities and states who are providing critical services to newcomers, and would expedite work permits for people who are in the country and qualify. [Emphasis added]

Earlier this month, in a similar press release on the Senate bill, Biden’s White House touted billions that the legislation would provide to cities and states accepting these so-called “newcomers.”

The Biden administration has made it a point to rid the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of all references to “illegal aliens” or “illegal immigrants,” instead demanding officials use “more inclusive” terms like “noncitizens” and “undocumented individual.”

In July 2023, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended these changes:

In the Department of Homeland Security, I issued a memo very early on that we would not use the term ‘illegal alien’ when speaking of these individuals, we use the term ‘noncitizen,’ and that speaks to the importance of respecting the dignity of the individual.

Democrats in Congress have sought to ban the terms “illegal alien” and “alien” from federal law, filing legislation in 2021 that would strip all of their references.

Judiciary Section

Illinois Judge Bars Trump from State Primary Ballot as Supreme Court Ruling Looms

A judge in Illinois ruled on Wednesday to bar former President Donald Trump from the state’s Republican primary ballot, citing his alleged actions during the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“Cook County Circuit Judge Tracie Porter sided with Illinois voters who argued that the former president should be disqualified from the state’s March 19 primary ballot and its Nov. 5 general election ballot for violating the anti-insurrection clause of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment,” Reuters reported.

The judge, however, delayed her ruling from taking effect due to an expected appeal from the former president. The ruling also comes after the Supreme Court heard arguments on Trump being barred from the ballot in Colorado, which a majority of legal experts believe will rule in the former president’s favor with either a 9-0 or 8-1 vote. As SCOTUSBlog wrote in early February:

The Supreme Court on Thursday appeared ready to hold that Colorado cannot exclude former President Donald Trump from the ballot based on his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol. During an oral argument that lasted for more than two hours, justices of all ideological stripes questioned the wisdom of allowing a state to make its own decisions about whether a candidate should appear on the ballot, both because of the effect that such decisions would have on the rest of the country and because of the hurdles that courts would face in reviewing those decisions.

Steven Cheung, spokesperson for the Trump presidential campaign, said that Soros-funded groups spearheaded the effort to kick him off the ballot.

“The Soros-funded Democrat front-groups continue to attempt to interfere in the election and deny President Trump his rightful place on the ballot. Today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state’s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions,” Cheung said.

Judge blocks Texas law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants who illegally enter US

A federal judge on Thursday blocked a new Texas law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S., dealing a victory to the Biden administration in its feud with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over immigration enforcement.

The preliminary injunction granted by U.S. District Judge David Ezra pauses a law that was set to take effect March 5 and came as President Joe Biden and his likely Republican challenger in November, Donald Trump, were visiting Texas’ southern border to discuss immigration. Texas officials are expected to appeal.

Opponents have called the Texas measure the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since a 2010 Arizona law that opponents rebuked as a “Show Me Your Papers” bill. The U.S. Supreme Court partially struck down the Arizona law, but some Texas Republican leaders, who often refer to the migrant influx as an “invasion,” want that ruling to get a second look.

Ezra cited the Constitution’s supremacy clause and U.S. Supreme Court decisions as factors that contributed to his ruling. He said the Texas law would conflict with federal immigration law, and the nation’s foreign relations and treaty obligations.

Allowing Texas to “permanently supersede federal directives” due to a so-called invasion would “amount to nullification of federal law and authority — a notion that is antithetical to the Constitution and has been unequivocally rejected by federal courts since the Civil War,” the judge wrote.

Citing the Supreme Court’s decision on the Arizona law, Ezra wrote that the Texas law was preempted, and he struck down state officials’ claims that large numbers of illegal border crossings constituted an “invasion.”

The lawsuit is among several legal battles between Texas and Biden’s administration over how far the state can go to try to prevent migrants from crossing the border.

Former Biden Aide Paid Fani Willis’s Deputy DA Jeff DiSantis $131K in 2023

Democrat operative and Fulton County’s Deputy District Attorney Jeff DiSantis received four payments totaling $131,335 for providing consulting services to Rep. Gabriel Amo (D-RI), a former Biden White House aide who worked with local elected officials, Federal Election Commission records show.

The money flow is significant because sources with direct knowledge of Fulton County’s office told Breitbart News DiSantis is a Biden plant inside a Fulton County office to target former President Donald Trump.

DiSantis’ payments were previously unreported.

DiSantis was working at county DA’s office while operating a consulting firm named “20/20 Insights, LLC.” Sources told Breitbart News deputy district attorneys would likely have to sign an oath that prohibits them from working outside their county employment agreement. DiSantis’s oath, if he signed one, remains undisclosed.

It is also curious that DiSantis contracted with Amo, who worked in the Biden administration as the deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs before running for Congress in 2023. There he worked as the principal liaison to mayors and “local elected officials,” according to his White House bio. Amo also served as an adviser on President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and later served on his transition team.

“That is the connection to the White House,” one source told Breitbart News. “DiSantis did this. He’s the one. He is the one pulling all the strings. He was the one that walled her [Willis] off. He was in every important meeting. He is the brainchild behind this.”

DiSantis is a wealthy and successful Democrat operative. He ran Willis’ 2020 campaign and raised $4 million dollars.

Other Issues

Video Shows Person of Interest in Explosion Outside Alabama AG’s Office

Law enforcement has released video footage of a person of interest in the explosion outside of the Alabama Attorney General’s Office early Saturday morning.

The images and video — released by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) — show a person dressed in dark clothing and a hat with a mask covering his/her face.

ALEA, along with FBI Mobile and the Alabama Attorney General’s Office, are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the individual.

An explosive device detonated near the intersection of Washington Avenue and South Bainbridge Street, outside of Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office in downtown Montgomery at around 3:42 a.m. on February 24, according to ALEA.

Special agents discovered the detonated explosive at approximately 8:19 a.m. on Monday after receiving a tip of a “suspicious package” and confirmed the device had been detonated on Saturday.

“No injuries or damage to nearby buildings were reported. Nothing further is available as the investigation remains ongoing,” ALEA said in a press release on Wednesday.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit information online at: www.fbi.govalabamaagexplosion.

Christian Groups Demand Apology for Politico Reporter’s Viral ‘Christian Nationalist’ Comments

Leading Christian organizations sent a letter to left-leaning Politico on Wednesday, demanding an apology after one of the outlet’s top reporters painted those who believe their rights come from God as “extremists” and “Christian nationalists.”

Politico investigative reporter Heidi Przybyla said on February 23 on MSNBC’s All In that Christian nationalists, not Christians, believe rights come from God, in what appears to be part of a continued crusade from the left to paint Christian values as a “threat to democracy.”

Przybyla said:

The base of the Republican Party has shifted. Remember when Trump ran in 2016? A lot of the mainland Evangelicals wanted nothing to do with the divorced real estate mogul who cheated on his wife with a porn star and all of that. So what happened was he was surrounded by this more extremist element. We are going to hear words like “Christian nationalism,” like “the new apostolic reformation.” These are groups that you should get very schooled on because they have a lot of power in Trump’s circle, and the one thing that unites all of them, because there’s many different groups orbiting Trump, but the thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians, by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different — is that they believe that our rights, as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress. They don’t come from the Supreme Court. They come from God.

The problem with that is that they are determining — man, it is men — are determining what God is telling them. And in the past, that so-called natural law is, you know, it’s a pillar of Catholicism, for instance, it’s been used for good in social justice campaigns. Martin Luther King evoked it in talking about civil rights.

But now, you have an extremist element of conservative Christians who say that this applies specifically to issues including abortion, gay marriage, and it’s going much further than that, as you see, for instance, with the ruling in Alabama this week that judges connected to that Dominionist faction in talking about a lot of other issues, including surrogacy, IVF, you know, sex education in schools. There’s a lot in addition.

LATIN AMERICA

---

Anything in Common? Yeah, Communism!

Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal Make Secret Trip to Cuba

The Miami Herald revealed this week that Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) traveled to communist Cuba at an unspecified time in February – a visit the Cuban government has yet to discuss and the lawmakers did not publicize.

The Congresswomen reportedly met with Castro regime officials as part of a secret delegation representing the “Congressional Progressive Caucus,” the Herald observed. In addition to the two lawmakers, a representative from the office of Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) also reportedly attended.

Following the publication of its report on Tuesday, the caucus issued a statement confirming the visit: “Representatives Jayapal and Omar traveled to Cuba last week, where they met with people from across Cuban civil society and government officials to discuss human rights and the U.S.-Cuba bilateral relationship,” a spokesperson told the newspaper.

The details of the trip remain a mystery at press time. Outside of the statement from the Progressive Caucus, the members of Congress involved have not commented on the matter. The Cuban Communist Party has not at press time addressed the reports of their visit, nor has its official state newspaper, Granma. Granma typically publishes effusive propaganda pieces praising any American politicians who lend support to the regime by visiting and treating its criminal leaders with respect, such as Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).

The Cuban External Relations Ministry (MINREX) last confirmed a visit by American officials on Wednesday, informing that American diplomat Kerri Hannan held meetings in Havana with regime henchmen.

No “civil society” organizations have at press time corroborated the Congressional Progressive Caucus claim that Reps. Jayapal and Omar met with “Cuban civil society” to discuss “human rights.” The concept of a free “civil society” in Cuba is illegal, as the Communist Party severely represses the operation of groups such as the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), believed to be the country’s largest dissident organization. The head of UNPACU, José Daniel Ferrer, was arrested on July 11, 2021, during a wave of anti-communist protests in which an estimated 187,000 participated nationwide. As of Wednesday, the human rights group Amnesty International reported that Ferrer has been missing for three months, as the regime will not allow his family to visit him or tell them his whereabouts.

Communist Nicaragua Signs Security Agreement with Russia to Bolster Repression

Nicaragua’s brutal socialist dictator Daniel Ortega hosted a meeting on Wednesday with Gen. Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, and several other high-ranking Russian security officials.

Nicaragua signed several security deals with Russia at the meeting to bolster Ortega’s apparatus of repression, which the United Nations blasted for its human rights abuses in a damning report on Thursday.

Ortega, who is styled as a “commander” in his regime’s propaganda releases, billed the “special” meeting with Patrushev as a conference of a “task force” composed of other repressive Latin American regimes, including Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia.

Ortega said the participating dictatorships looked forward to advice and training from Russia’s police and intelligence services, as well as economic support from Russia.

Nicaragua’s opposition news website Artículo 66 — which is named after the article of the Nicaraguan constitution that guarantees freedom of speech and is relentlessly hounded by Ortega’s goon squads for exercising that right — feared Ortega and his “Sandinista repressive forces” would “refine their repressive methods in Russia” and obtain new resources for keeping their political adversaries under surveillance.

Artículo 66 noted that, according to Ortega’s son and investment adviser Laureano Ortega Murillo, the agreements signed on Wednesday included a “cooperation protocol” between the Nicaraguan police and Russian interior ministry that will last until at least 2026, and provides for cooperation in “retraining and professional improvement of personnel in the field of police activity.”

Another deal described by Murillo committed the Russian Interior Ministry to help its Nicaraguan counterpart develop “legal regulation of the activities of non-profit organizations.

The U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) received a report from its panel of Nicaragua experts on Thursday that accused Ortega, his wife Rosario Murillo, and his top officials of repressive actions that were “tantamount to crimes against humanity.”

Brazil Experiencing Record-Setting Amazon Fires Under Socialist Lula

Officials overseeing the Brazilian Amazon registered almost 3,000 fires during February, marking a new record for the South American country, according to data released by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

According to the institute, 2,924 fires were documented in February as of the Tuesday, February 26, cutoff date, up from 2,049 registered in January. February’s data marks a new record of rainforest fires registered since it began logging them in 1999.

February 2024’s record represents a staggering 298 percent increase. INPE recorded 734 fires in February 2023. According to local media, the Brazilian Environment Ministry is yet to publicly comment on the report at press time.

The dramatic increase in forest fires occurred outside of the rainforest’s dry season, which is expected to last between July and October, peaking in August. During those months, the forest’s vegetation is more susceptible to burning, and the lower humidity in the air potentially allows for the flames to spread much more easily, making firefighting efforts more difficult.

Experts stressed to local Brazilian media that the forest rarely catches fire on its own and most fires involve criminal human action. In most cases, the fires are used to open up new areas for grazing.

The state of Roraima is the area most affected by February’s record fires. The smoke has been reported to have covered parts of Roraima’s capital city, Boa Vista, and stretched over the RR-206 state highway.

Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski, and Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara are expected to travel to Boa Vista soon to inaugurate a space to coordinate actions in the Yanomami Indigenous Land. The fires have severely affected the Yanomami community.

Venezuela Trashes Amply Violated Deal with Biden Administration for ‘Free and Fair’ Elections

Venezuela’s socialist regime signed an agreement Wednesday with several collaborationist groups to work toward setting a date for a “free and fair” presidential election in 2024.

The agreement, according to the regime of dictator Nicolás Maduro, “substitutes” for the “Barbados agreement,” signed by the socialist regime in October with Venezuela’s Unitary Platform “opposition” coalition — and negotiated under the observation of the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Wednesday’s new sham election agreement — officially called the “National Agreement on General Principles, Timetable and Extension of Electoral Guarantees for the 2024 Presidential Election,” — saw representatives of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), PSUV’s allied and ancillary parties, smaller “opposition” parties, and collaborationist members of trade, industries, and other civil society organizations pledge to participate in a “free and fair” presidential election in 2024. The deal suggested roughly 27 possible dates for the yet-to-be-scheduled electoral event between April 13 and December 8.

The agreement will be presented to the regime-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) on Friday.

“From my point of view, this agreement is the development of the Barbados agreement and substitutes for it. Because he who can do more, can do less,” Jorge Rodríguez, head of the Venezuelan National Assembly, said. “In other words, the Barbados agreement is a subset of this set of this agreement, which is much broader.”

Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro celebrated the new agreement by downplaying the October 2023 Barbados deal and previous agreements signed with the “opposition” as “sub-agreements” contingent upon the latest alleged deal.

“The Barbados and Mexico agreements are sub-agreements integrated to the Caracas agreement that will guarantee free elections in Venezuela,” Maduro said during an official event. “With great tact and political capacity, we will comply with this agreement as we have complied with all the agreements from the Dominican Republic, Norway, Mexico, and Barbados.”

“This agreement, which I qualify as the broad agreement of Caracas, gathers the best of the dialogues of Mexico and Barbados and gathers the best of all sectors and of the political parties legalized in the CNE,” he added.

EUROPE

---

Farm Land Disappearing in UK?

MPs Raise Concerns Over Farm Land Used for Green Energy Projects Affecting ‘Food Security’

MPs have raised concerns over agricultural land being used for green energy projects, such as solar panel farms, impacting food security.

Speaking in the House of Commons chamber on Tuesday, Greg Smith MP said he was seeing “thousands of acres” of agricultural land being built on or earmarked for solar farms in his constituency.

The Conservative MP for Buckingham said during an oral answers to questions debate, “The prime minister was very clear that vast swathes of agricultural land would not be lost to solar on his watch, yet I am seeing thousands of acres across my constituency being built out or proposed for solar—from Kimble Wick to Dinton, Ford to Beachampton, and more—including the latest 2,100 acre abomination in the Claydons known as Rosefield.”

“Good agricultural land that regularly produces wheat harvests of 10 tonnes per hectare, for example, is often falsely graded as 3b because the readings are taken from the headland, not the field,” he continued.

Mr. Smith asked energy minister Andrew Bowie: “When will my honourable friend ensure that energy policy does not trump food security, and stop the mass proliferation of agricultural land being used for inefficient solar?”

Mr. Bowie replied that while “it would not be appropriate for me to comment on any specific matters in relation to that project,” he wanted to “reassure him that all applications are judged on their individual merits, and I encourage him and all his affected constituents to engage with the planning process at every stage as it continues.”

The energy minister said the project is at the pre-application planning stage and the application is expected to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate between January and March 2025.

The MP for Buckingham had referenced Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge in August 2022 that the UK must protect its “best agricultural land.”

Writing in The Telegraph on food security and domestic food production, Mr. Sunak had said: “We must also protect our best agricultural land. On my watch, we will not lose swathes of our best farmland to solar farms.”

War & Rumors of War

Macron Insists His Controversial Boots on Ground Comments ‘Measured’ and ‘Thought Through’

French President Emmanuel Macron became the first Western leader to publicly discuss deploying soldiers to Ukraine to fight Russia, triggering a stampede of NATO allies distancing themselves from the idea and threats of nuclear war by the Kremlin, but despite the blowback Macron insists his position is “measured”, and critics have even been accused of being Putin stooges.

Each of President Macron’s words on refusing to rule out the possibility of deploying NATO troops to Ukraine against Russia is weighed, measured, and thought through, the French leader insists as he weathers significant backlash from his comments on Monday. Macron insisted on Thursday that given the seriousness of the matter at hand, he had said what he meant and there was no space for ambiguity.

French broadcaster BFMTV reports on Macron’s doubling-down, that he said today in response to a question posed as he attended the opening of the Paris Olympic village for the forthcoming games: “These are sufficiently serious subjects. Each of the words I say on this matter is weighed, thought out and measured”.

On Monday, President Macron became the first NATO leader to speculate openly about actually sending Western troops to Ukraine to fight. Speaking as he hosted a crisis meeting for European leaders on Ukraine in Paris, the President said sending troops to Ukraine “could not be ruled out” and Western allies must “do whatever we can to obtain our objective”, defeating Russia.

On one hand, Macron acknowledged there was no “consensus” for war with Russia yet, but also noted how quickly attitudes had changed towards donations of equipment to Ukraine had shifted. Compared to the situation in 2024 where fighter jets, tanks, and cruise missiles had been given to Kyiv, Macron noted how Ukraine’s backers were initially only happy to hand over “sleeping bags and helmets”.

Macron’s bellicose rhetoric was quickly met with strong rebuttals from European and NATO leaders. A British defence ministry spokesman decried the plan as a “major escalation” and a spokesman for the Prime Ministers said there were no plans for a “large-scale deployment”. Germany was absolutely clear on the matter, responding to Macron that: “One thing is clear: There will be no ground troops from European states or NATO. That’s true.”

NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg was also clear Macron’s plan did not find favour, saying: “there are no plans for Nato combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.”

French PM Suggests Populists Are Putin’s ‘Troops’ for Questioning Macron’s March to War Rhetoric

French President Emmanuel Macron’s newest attack dog, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, vociferously defended his boss’s “belligerent” war rhetoric, going so far as to brand Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party as Putin’s “troops” for being against sending French troops to fight in Ukraine.

In what may be come to seen as the opening gambit of the French campaign for the European Parliament, two of the leading figures in the race, Marine Le Pen and Gabriel Attal, squared off in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Rather than the usual issues of campaign season, such as migration or the economy, this time it was President Macron’s warning that the soldiers of France may be called upon to fight in Ukraine against the Russians.

The suggestion from Macron that NATO troops would engage directly with the Russians — and potentially sparking a Third World War over relatively insignificant territories in the Donbas region — has not been received well, with Moscow threatening the potential of global annihilation, and allies backing away, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz both rejecting the idea that NATO troops would be sent into Ukraine.

For her part, former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said per Le Figaro: “The first duty of a country is to dispose of the lives of its soldiers only to defend its independence or to preserve its integrity or to commit itself, if, within the framework of an alliance, obligations [that] have been contracted .

“But there on external ground, we would have to intervene militarily with our soldiers? By affirming that sending ground troops was ‘not ruled out’ Emmanuel Macron took a further step towards co-belligerence, posing an existential risk to 70 million French people and more particularly to our armed forces.”

Putin Issues (Another) WWIII Warning: Put Western Troops in Ukraine and Get Global Nuclear War in Return

AP reports he spoke in a state-of-the-nation address ahead of next month’s election he’s all but certain to win, underlining his readiness to hold Russian gains in Ukraine at any cost.

In a thinly veiled reference to French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement earlier this week that the future deployment of Western ground troops to Ukraine is possible, Putin warned it would lead to “tragic” consequences for the countries who decide to do that, repeating earlier threats of igniting global nuclear conflagration.

As Breitbart News reported, Macron said sending Western soldiers to Ukraine “could not be ruled out” and that “we must do whatever we can to obtain our objective.”

“Nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we can to make sure that Russia does not prevail”, Macron said, while expressing his belief Russia was preparing to take more territory not just in Ukraine, but in other countries too.

Putin noted while accusing Russia of plans to attack NATO allies in Europe, Western allies were “selecting targets for striking our territory and selecting the most efficient as they think striking assets and talking about the possibility of sending a NATO contingent to Ukraine.”

“We remember the fate of those who sent their troop contingents to the territory of our country,” the Russian leader said. “Now the consequences for the potential invaders will be far more tragic.”

“Don’t they understand it?” he continued, alleging that Western leaders are playing with options of deeper involvement in the conflict, as in a simulation. “Those people haven’t been through any tough challenges and they have forgotten what war means.”

EU Chief Says ‘Urgent’ Need to Rearm Militaries of Europe over Russian Threat, Hints at EU Army

European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen said there is an “urgent” need for EU member states to ramp up military capabilities while apparently pushing towards a collective European Army over the potential threat of a war with Russia.

Speaking before the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday, EU Cheif Ursula von der Leyen said that the bloc needs to begin working on a “European security architecture” in light of the alleged danger posed by Moscow, which she argued represented a threat not only on “the battlefield but across all our society”.

“The threats to our security, our prosperity and our way of life come in many different forms, and we all know them. Some of them are obvious, some of them are hazier on the surface. Be it tackling political interference, reducing our dangerous dependencies – a policy I have called de-risking – or be it eliminating hostile actors from our critical infrastructure. We Europeans must be on guard,” she said.

Therefore the EU boss called on member states to “move fast” in ramping up their military capabilities, urging for a “turbocharging our defence industrial capacity in the next five years.”

“The threat of war may not be imminent, but it is not impossible. The risks of war should not be overblown, but they should be prepared for. And that starts with the urgent need to rebuild, replenish and modernise Member States’ armed forces,” von der Leyen said.

The EU chief, who was largely seen as ‘falling upwards’ from her previous position as Angela Merkel’s Defence Minister to her current role, was previously criticised for leaving the German military in a “catastrophic” condition and therefore precipitated the present-day lack of military readiness in Europe.

MIDDLE EAST

---

German Frigrate in the Red Sea

And here is a German frigate becoming the laughing stock of Europe.

Germany Mistakes U.S. Drone for Houthis, Fires Missiles, Misses

German frigate inadvertently attempted to shoot down a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone on Tuesday night, but the American aircraft was saved by the German’s missiles malfunctioning and falling harmlessly into the sea.

Serious issues are implied for NATO military cooperation and capability after it was revealed one of Germany’s top warships wasn’t informed a U.S. drone was operating in its area, attempted to shoot it down, and failed.

The Frigate Hessen was deployed to the Red Sea earlier this month as part of the European Union’s mission to defend merchant shipping from Houthi attacks — an operation distinct from the U.S.-UK-led coalition to do the same thing, but which Europe declined to join — and enjoyed its first successful engagement on Tuesday, splashing two Houthi drones on Tuesday. But shortly afterwards another unidentified drone flying in the Hessen’s patrol area was detected, and fired upon.

German tabloid newspaper Bild reports the ship had been in contact with allied nations operating in the region and none reported they had drones operating in the area as part of the process of deciding whether to fire at the unidentified aircraft. Later, it transpired the United States was secretly operating a ‘dark’ drone with its transponder turned off above the Hessen, but hadn’t told anyone.

A defence spokesman said of the attempt to take down the crypto-American drone, which was subsequently revealed to be a MQ-9 Reaper, reports Die Welt: “The case was resolved in that it was not a hostile drone, which only became clear afterwards.”

The Hessen launched two air defence missiles, but embarrassingly for Germany, both malfunctioned and fell into the sea. The Raytheon-made SM-2 missiles are the same kind carried aboard U.S. Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and are also used by a host of other NATO navies.

Bild emphasises the failure, even if it was a fortuitous one against an ally in this case, underlines the parlous state of the underfunded German military. Indeed, the embarrassment has a third dimension, as it was revealed this week that one of the kinds of ammunition carried by German Frigate Hessen is no longer made and cannot be replaced as it is used, meaning when the stock is exhausted, so is the ship.

News magazine Focus reports German parliamentarians who voted on whether to dispatch their nation’s warship to the Red Sea weren’t even aware of this limitation before it was deployed. The report did not specify which weapon system was particularly impacted by the degraded industrial capacity, but this is not a problem unique to Germany.