NATO’s newly appointed Secretary General, former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has backed the idea of allowing Ukraine to use Western-supplied weapons to strike deep into Russian territory.

Rutte made the remarks on Tuesday during a press conference following a ceremony commemorating the transfer of power from his predecessor Jens Stoltenberg. The new NATO chief backed the idea of Ukraine doing whatever it sees fit, claiming the country is within its rights to do so.

“We know international law, and according to international law, this right does not end at the border. So that means that supporting Ukraine’s right to self-defense means that it is also possible for them to strike legitimate targets on the aggressor territory,” Rutte said.

The global standing of the US has been called into question by the Ukraine conflict, the country’s Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander admitted on Tuesday. The senior official tried to allay concerns regarding the future of Washington’s security cooperation with its Western European allies when it comes to dealing with Russia.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the Warsaw Security Forum this week, Wallander argued that “American global credibility is at stake” in Ukraine. In light of this challenge, she continued, “the United States and Europe .. must work together for credible defense and deterrence against Russia.”

In the Progressive International's 38th Briefing of 2024, we bring you news from Lebanon and the spiraling illogic of “de-escalation by escalation”. If you would like to receive our Briefing in your inbox, you can sign up using the form at the bottom of this page.

1978. 1982. 2006. 2024.

Once again Israeli military forces muster to the North, preparing to invade Lebanon. On Wednesday, Herzi Halevi, the head of Israel’s military, set out the plan to his troops in plain terms. “Your military boots,” he said, “will enter enemy territory.”

And on Saturday, Israel warplanes assassinated Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, in a ruthless assault that flattened an entire bloc of residential buildings in Beirut with US “bunker-buster” bombs, killing hundreds in the process.

For years now, Fox News and other right-wing media have warned about an invasion of “illegal aliens” into the United States that supposedly threatens national security.

Donald Trump catapulted himself to the presidency in 2016 by vowing to crack down on illegal immigration and to build a border wall, which the Biden administration has extended.

 

The following speakers shared their insights on Saturday afternoon in Kingston, New York on how to restore the peace and freedom that has been robbed from us by politicians… 

• Roger Waters,  activist, bassist, a founder of Pink Floyd.

• Judge Andrew Napolitano, constitutional expert, and host of Judging Freedom podcast.

• Scott Ritter, former U.N. weapons inspector, analyst, columnist.

Britain goes full Orwell accusing Putin of imperialism
Foreign Secretary David Lammy launched into a weird rant against Russia, accusing it of the crimes Britain has committed...

There are intriguing and disappointing – though not surprising – continuities between Great Britain under the conservative Tories and the current iteration under a hardly less rightwing version of the Labour party. Crony corruption scandals that reveal the British political elite as comically greedy and petty are already erupting again.

 

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

 

The freedom for individuals to choose their sources of information makes it difficult to govern effectively, former US Secretary of State John Kerry has said.

Speaking at a World Economic Forum (WEF) panel on Green Energy last week, Kerry criticized the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects freedom of speech and the press. 

“It’s really hard to govern today,” he remarked, arguing that social media poses challenges for building consensus in democracies. 

The referees we used to have to determine what is fact and what isn’t have kind of been eviscerated,” Kerry stated, adding that individuals now decide where to get their news.

In the US media and in the writings of a number of political scientists, the decline of the role and influence of the United States in the world is increasingly recognised. However, Washington is still thinking in terms of the last century, believing that the whole world revolves only around itself, and that the ‘poor’ United States are being opposed by revisionist (i.e. refusing to live according to US ways) powers, such as China and Russia, and such ‘villains’ as Iran and DPRK even openly sabotage US policy. 

 

The US elites just cannot accept the changes in the world   Veniamin Popov 

 

The similarities between Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton as opposition leader are obvious.

Dutton has taken a leaf from the Abbott “just say no” playbook and has relentlessly highlighted climate change as a key point of difference between the opposition under his leadership and the Albanese Labor government.

But there is another key similarity – the role played by Abbott’s powerful chief of staff, Peta Credlin.

 

The lingering influence of Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin on Peter Dutton   BY James Massola

 

During a meeting with US media on the UNGA sidelines, Max Blumenthal asked Masoud Pezeshkian about the Biden administration’s accusation this his government was funding pro-Palestine protest in the US, while the newly inaugurated Iranian president campaigned to prevent regional war.

 

BY MAX BLUMENTHAL AND ANYA PARAMPIL

 

We are at a new phase of human history because of the confluence of three interrelated trends. First, and most pivotal, the Western-led world system, in which countries of the North Atlantic region dominate the world militarily, economically, and financially, has ended. Second, the global ecological crisis marked by human-induced climate change, the destruction of biodiversity, and the massive pollution of the environment, will lead to fundamental changes of the world economy and governance.

 

By Jeffrey Sachs / Savage Minds

 

Mainstream American political leaders regularly argue that the United States adheres to, defends and promotes a “rules-based international order.” What’s that? It’s rarely defined.

The best summary I’ve been able to find was articulated by John Ikenberry of Princeton University, introduced by The Financial Times as “an influential scholar whose former pupils populate the American government,” in 2023. “I think the rules-based order has a history that predates the US and even predates 1945 and the great order-building efforts after World War II," Ikenberry said.

 

It's Time to End US' Cynical Policy of International Disruption

 

BY TED RALL

 

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) plans to soon enter southern Lebanon, ABC News reported on Saturday, citing an unnamed senior US official. The US outlet described the supposed operation as “very limited” but provided few details about its nature or when it may begin.

On Wednesday, the IDF chief of staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, announced a potential ground operation in the neighboring state as he talked to troops stationed at Israel’s northern border. The airstrikes against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past week were in particular aimed at preparing the area “for the possibility of your entry,” the general told the troops.

You will comply: This post-Soviet country is too independent for the West. Punishment is at hand
Washington and Brussels are ramping up the pressure on Georgia again, believing others’ sovereignty isn’t the same as theirs...

 

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

 

Say what you will about the EU’s “elites,” they are persistent. They are on the verge of losing the Ukraine proxy war they have been waging under US command against Russia, but they never miss a chance to antagonize. This time it’s Georgia’s turn – the one in the Caucasus, of course: Brussels would never dare raise its voice about anything in the US, no matter how rotten the sorry remnants of “democracy” are over there. 

Richard Marles and his mate, the US Defense Secretary, are beginning to wilt under the weight of sustained comment in Australia critical of the AUKUS arrangement.

Marles, unable to sustain a cogent argument himself, has his US friend propping him up in London to throw a 10,000-mile punch at me – and as usual, failing to materially respond to legitimate and particular criticisms made of the AUKUS arrangement.

 

Marles, with all pretention, flogging a dead seahorse    By Paul Keating