Emmanuel Macron has taken it upon himself to tackle the delicate diplomatic situation of the war in Ukraine with fresh vigour following his victory last month. This week he addressed the EU parliament on the question of the future of Europe. France has the rotating presidency of the EU Council until June 30 and Macron
capabilities, their air forbes their naval forces and, of course, their communications. so it will become very difficult. but kyiv will be the target, the primary target. and then they ll move quickly to install people to represent moscow s best interests. now, at that point, you know, what does nato do. of course, nato long ago made a commitment that they would, you know, watch out for ukraine. after all, ukraine surrendered in 1994 all its nuclear weapons back to moscow, and they were expecting that they would get some sort of accommodation. well, nato membership is not forthcoming, and neither probably, given macron and schultz s recent discussions, i don t see that it will come anytime soon, if at all. edward ward: so, bob, the message from the national security adviser, get out now, because we re not going in to come get you if russia invades. now, he s not saying to russia
do not put american s in harm s way or americans in harm s way or else, so what signals does that send to president putin? well, i think from the very beginning last summer, as your reporter indicated, the president has not, you know, president biden has really not put pressure enough on putin. the idea of sanctions would be overcome with the help of president xi in china, so i really don t see that the u.s. nor the sum of western european nations have the upper hand, and that s why i think macron and schultz are going to do whatever they can to mitigate the tensions. but the reality is that i think mr. putin can kind of dictate the terms of what s going to to happen whether it s going to be a full scale invasion that could be very bloody and costly to him or a false flag operation or something in between. edward: so i want to tell you that we can now report that biden and putin, president biden
Published date: 15 January 2021 16:54 UTC | Last update: 2 days ago
The French say they killed armed fighters, but like US attacks on Yemen, Afghanistan or Somalia, there is no proof that those killed by the recent drone strikes were combatants
A French Reaper drone is pictured at a military base in Niamey, Niger, on 15 December 2019 (AFP)
On the afternoon of 3 January, the French military deployed a Reaper drone over the village of Bounti in central Mali. The drone dropped three bombs on a dwelling in an open area outside the village, killing dozens of rebel fighters, the French military said.
Hours after the attack, however, several witnesses from Bounti said a series of bombs had struck a wedding party in the village, killing up to 20 civilians and injuring several others. According to Jeunesse Tabital Pulaaku, an advocacy group for Fulani herders, the father of the groom was killed, too. The group later published the names of 19