Graham says he supports the US training forces in Ukraine

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday he would support the United States training Ukrainian forces overseas.

“Yes, I do support us training inside the country. The delay and weapons because of House inaction, we did lose momentum. But from the very beginning, the Biden administration, they did not impose pre-invasion sanctions to deter Putin. They didn’t give weapons to Ukraine early on to deter Putin. And now we got a chance to reset this war that they have the weapons,” Graham said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

He also said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants the U.S. to go after Russia’s assets throughout the world to give it to his country.

“Here’s what he wanted most of all: for us to go after the Russian assets all over the world. Take the money from the sovereign wealth, funds of Russia and give it to Ukraine. There’s $300 billion sitting in Europe, from Russia. And sovereign wealth assets that we should seize and give to Ukraine,” he said.

Graham continued to emphasize his support for Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia, which invaded the country more than two years ago.

“Either we’re going to help Ukraine or we’re not. It’s now time to give them the F-16s, let then fly the planes, long range artillery to hit targets inside of Russia. Go after Putin’s assets wherever, all over the world. Go on the offensive. I think the summer Ukraine will regain military momentum,” he said.

President Biden met with Zelensky in Normandy, France, last week. He and other world leaders had gathered there to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Biden apologized to Zelensky for the delay in the U.S.’s funding of the war against Russia.

“I apologize for the weeks of not knowing what’s going to pass in terms of funding because we had trouble getting the bill that we had to pass that had the money in it. Some of our very conservative members were holding it up. But we got it done finally,” Biden said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4712575-lindsey-graham-support-us-training-forces-ukraine/

G7 plans to warn small Chinese banks over Russia ties: sources

 U.S. officials expect the Group of Seven (G7) wealthy democracies to send a tough new warning next week to smaller Chinese banks to stop assisting Russia in evading Western sanctions, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Leaders gathering at the June 13-15 summit in Italy hosted by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni are expected to focus heavily during their private meetings on the threat posed by burgeoning Chinese-Russian trade to the fight in Ukraine, and what to do about it.

Those conversations are likely to result in public statements on the issue involving Chinese banks, according to a U.S. official involved in planning the event and another person briefed on the issue.

The United States and its G7 partners - Britain, Canada France, Germany, Italy and Japan - are not expected to take any immediate punitive action against any banks during the summit, such as restricting their access to the SWIFT messaging system or cutting off access to the dollar. Their focus is said to be on smaller institutions, not the largest Chinese banks, one of the people said.

Negotiations were still ongoing about the exact format and content of the warning, according to the people, who declined to be named discussing ongoing diplomatic engagements. The plans to address the topic at the G7 were not previously reported.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Treasury Department had no immediate comment, but Treasury officials have repeatedly warned financial institutions in Europe and China and elsewhere that they face sanctions for helping Russia skirt Western sanctions.

Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for international economics, told the Center for a New American Security this week that he expected G7 leaders to target China's support for a Russian economy now reoriented around the war.

"Our concern is that China is increasingly the factory of the Russian war machine. You can call it the arsenal of autocracy when you consider Russia's military ambitions threaten obviously the existence of Ukraine, but increasingly European security, NATO and transatlantic security," he said.

Singh and other top Biden administration officials say Washington and its partners are prepared to use sanctions and tighter export controls to reduce Russia's ability to circumvent Western sanctions, including with secondary sanctions that could be used against banks and other financial institutions.

Washington is poised to announce significant new sanctions next week on financial and nonfinancial targets, a source familiar with the plans said.

This year's G7 summit is also expected to focus on leveraging profits generated by Russian assets frozen in the West for Ukraine's benefit.

RUSSIA BUSINESS MOVES TO CHINA'S SMALL BANKS

Washington has so far been reluctant to implement sanctions on major Chinese banks – long deemed by analysts a "nuclear" option – because of the huge ripple effects it could inflict on the global economy and U.S.-China relations.

Concern over the possibility of sanctions has already caused China's big banks to throttle payments for cross-border transactions involving Russians, or pull back from any involvement altogether, Reuters has reported.

That has pushed Chinese companies to small banks on the border and stoked the use of underground financing channels or banned cryptocurrency. Western officials are concerned that some Chinese financial institutions are still facilitating trade in goods with dual civilian and military applications.

Beijing has accused Washington of making baseless claims about what it says are normal trade exchanges with Moscow.

The Biden administration this year began probing which sanctions tools might be available to it to thwart Chinese banks, a U.S. official previously told Reuters, but had no imminent plans to take such steps. In December, President Joe Biden signed an executive order threatening sanctions on financial institutions that help Moscow skirt Western sanctions.

The U.S. has sanctioned smaller Chinese banks in the past, such as the Bank of Kunlun, over various issues, including working with Iranian institutions.

China and Russia have fostered more trade in yuan instead of the dollar in the wake of the Ukraine war, potentially shielding their economies from possible U.S. sanctions.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-g7-plans-warn-small-121709141.html

US Admits Role In Israeli Rescue Operation That Killed Over 200 Palestinians

 The United States has denied ongoing allegations that it was militarily involved in Israel's Saturday raid on a central Gaza Hamas stronghold which returned alive four hostages who had been kidnapped on Oct.7. 

"Well, the one thing I can say is that there were no U.S. forces, no U.S. boots on the ground involved in this operation. We did not participate militarily in this operation," US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said in a CNN interview on Sunday. There have been widespread claims that US special forces advisers were on the ground in some capacity, but this hasn't been met with confirmation.

However, it has been reported that "A U.S. official told Axios the U.S. hostage cell in Israel supported the effort to rescue the four hostages." The precise level of 'support' and details of this involvement hasn't been revealed, but The New York Times has so far described that US officials in Israel had been "providing intelligence and other logistical support."

Despite the freeing of the four hostages being a clearly big 'win' and victory for Israel, which the White House also congratulated, it quickly emerged that the refugee camp at Nuseirat suffered a massacre during the operation.

The Palestinian side is saying that at least 274 people were killed, mostly civilians, in the large-scale attacks which reportedly paved the way for the elite counterterror team to go in and rescue the captives while under heavy fire. Israel launched significant strikes on the surrounding area to protect the Israeli elite hostage rescue team.

Sullivan confirmed during the same CNN interview that "innocent people were killed" in the Israeli military operation to free the group of hostages. He didn't say how many civilian casualties there were, however. "We, the United States, are not in a position today to make a definitive statement about that. The Israeli defense forces have put out one number. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has put out another number," Sullivan said.

"But we do know this, Dana. Innocent people were tragically killed in this operation. The exact number we don’t know, but innocent people were killed. And that is heartbreaking. That is tragic," he added. He then followed by saying something which can be seen as an indirect criticism of Netanyahu's decision-making. He stressed that Biden "thinks the best way to get all of the hostages home is in a deal where they’re brought out diplomatically, where there’s no need for military operations to get every last hostage out."

"In the absence of that, without Hamas saying yes to the deal, unfortunately, we are going to continue to see ongoing conflict and military operations in which Israel makes efforts to recover its citizens and, frankly, to recover American citizens. What we would much prefer to see is a cease-fire where the hostages come out peacefully," he added.

One big claim that neither the US nor Israeli side has acknowledged is that the Israelis transported an elite counter-terror troops into central Gaza by using a humanitarian aid truck from the US-constructed pier as a decoy. Some videos have circulated which purport to show this, but there's yet to be substantial evidence proving it. But there is some video evidence that the Pentagon's humanitarian pier location was used by Israel forces, at least as a staging ground area...

Middle East Eye explains of the video:

Citing a source familiar with the matter, CNN reported that there were "no US boots on the ground," adding that the American cell has been in place since 7 October, supporting Israel with information gathering. 

However, videos circulating online on Saturday showed a helicopter taking off from the beach in Gaza with the US pier in the backdrop.

Two US officials told CBS News that the pier was not used in the operation and in a series of statements released later on Saturday, US Central Command (Centcom) said that the "pier facility, including its equipment, personnel, and assets were not used in the operation to rescue hostages today in Gaza."

Importantly, on Saturday The Times of Israel's chief military correspondent Emanuel Fabian confirmed that the video showed an IDF helicopter extracting a hostage: "Footage shows one of the hostages (presumably Noa Argamani) being extracted from the Gaza Strip in a helicopter after being rescued from Hamas captivity in Nuseirat," he wrote on X. One initial commenter picked up on what can clearly be seen in the immediate background, "Right next to the US pier?"

US Central Command (CENTCOM) attempted to address allegations that the Gaza pier was used in Saturday's Israeli military operation:

On Sunday, Hamas' armed wing is claiming that three Israeli hostages killed, including a US citizen (dual national), during the Israel rescue raid in Gaza. Hamas also says the whole operation resulted in a civilian massacre of the area, and especially in a refugee camp. One eyewitness account is as follows:

"The occupation has annihilated the Nuseirat refugee camp. Innocent and unarmed civilian were bombed in their homes. I've never seen anything like this. It's a catastrophe," local resident Nidal Abdo told Middle East Eye. 

"I came from the camp to here in the hospital on foot. I can't describe how we fled. I saw dead children and body parts strewn all over as we fled. No one was able to assist them. I saw an elderly man killed on a animal-drawn cart.

"Nuseirat was being annihilated. It was hell."

Meanwhile, some pundits are asserting that all of this makes the Pentagon complicit in the massive casualties in central Gaza that resulted from the IDF rescue op. They are pointing out that hundreds were killed and wounded in order to rescue four Israelis.

These critics are alleging that the US aid pier is really all about providing "cover" for a deepening US military role in the conflict. Already, US anti-air systems have been spotted on the pier, and US troops overseeing its operations have been given a 'right to return fire' order if fired upon.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-admits-role-israeli-rescue-operation-reportedly-killed-over-200-palestinians

Microsoft, Nvidia to Face US Antitrust Probes Over AI Moves

 The US is opening antitrust investigations into two of the world’s most valuable companies, Microsoft Corp. and Nvidia Corp., over their dominance of the rapidly emerging field of artificial intelligence, according to people familiar with the matter.

Microsoft has poured more than $13 billion into its partnership with OpenAI, tapping the startup’s generative-AI technology for the Bing search service, Edge internet browser and Windows. Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chipmaker, has acknowledged allocating its chips to customers it deems most likely to use them quickly, prompting concerns that it has too much power over the market for cutting-edge AI semiconductors.

The country’s two antitrust agencies also agreed to divide responsibility over AI. The Federal Trade Commission will handle the inquiry into Microsoft’s ties with OpenAI, while the Justice Department will probe Nvidia’s dominance in AI chips, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing inter-agency negotiations. The DOJ will retain oversight of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, the people said.

The agencies reached the deal in the last few days after more than six months of negotiations, the people said. The agreement gives each agency authority to open an antitrust probe into the conduct of the respective companies and their recent deals.

The FTC has also opened a probe into whether Microsoft failed to properly notify the antitrust agencies about its deal with Inflection AI, according to the people. In March, the Redmond, Washington-based software giant agreed to pay the startup $650 million to license its AI software and hired much of Inflection’s staff. The agency can levy fines if it determines Microsoft violated the law about reporting transactions.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company has not been contacted by the FTC regarding OpenAI.

“Our agreements with Inflection gave us the opportunity to recruit individuals at Inflection AI and build a team capable of accelerating Microsoft Copilot, while enabling Inflection to continue pursuing its independent business and ambition as an AI studio,” the company said in a statement. “We take our legal obligations to report transactions seriously and are confident that we have complied with those obligations.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-nvidia-face-us-antitrust-142206018.html

Gazprom says it will ship 41.9 mcm of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday

Russia's Gazprom said it would ship 42.7 million cubic metres (mcm) of natural gas to Europe through Ukraine on Saturday, hours after it announced that flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany would not resume as planned.

Flows via the Sudzha entry point were up slightly compared to the 41.3 mcm Gazprom sent on Friday, but not enough to compensate for missing gas that were expected to be pumped through Nord Stream 1 on Saturday.

Gazprom announced late Friday it had detected an oil leakage on equipment during Nord Stream 1 maintenance work and would not be able to resume flows. It set no timeframe for fixing the problem.

Siemens Energy, which normally services Nord Stream 1 turbines, said such a leak should not stop the pipeline from operating. It also said the Portovaya compressor station, where the leak was discovered, has other turbines to keep Nord Stream 1 operating. 

Russia's Gazprom said it would ship 41.9 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point on Monday, down from 40.9 mcm on Sunday.

An application to supply gas via the Sokhranovka entry point was rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gazprom-says-ship-41-9-065203309.html

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/finance/news/gazprom-piping-gas-europe-via-072812503.html?src=rss

South Korea to begin loudspeaker broadcasts directed at North Korea

 South Korea will begin on Sunday loudspeaker broadcasts at the border directed at North Korea in response to the resumption of balloons carrying trash being launched by Pyongyang, the South's National Security Council said in a statement.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-korea-begin-loudspeaker-broadcasts-041456930.html

Next Month's NATO Summit Might See Most Members Joining The "Military Schengen"

 by Andrew Korybko via Substack,

NATO logistics chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Sollfrank is responsible for last November’s “military Schengen” proposal, which bore fruit in February after Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland – the last of which has comprehensively subordinated itself to Berlin – agreed to optimize their military logistics.

This is intended to streamline the dispatch of emergency American military forces to the Russian border via the Dutch port of Rotterdam and the next two countries’ rail systems in the event of a major crisis.

The Telegraph updated their audience about Sollfrank’s brainchild on Tuesday a little more than a month before the next NATO Summit in DC from 9-11 July in their article detailing how “Nato land corridors could rush US troops to front line in event of European war”.

It included a handy map showing the five corridors that are being relied on to this end, with the most prominent being the abovementioned Dutch-German-Polish one.

In the order that they were enumerated by that outlet, the others include Italy-Slovenia-Croatia-Hungary; Greece-Bulgaria-Romania; Turkiye-Bulgaria-Romania; and Norway-Sweden-Finland. The first is presently unviable given Hungary’s resistance to NATO’s anti-Russian warmongering (unless Orban is neutralized); the next two require expanding Romania’s “Moldova Highway” project to the Aegean Sea; while the last one is dependent on just a few chokepoints. They’re all therefore works in progress.

Therein lies the reason why the upcoming NATO Summit might see most of the bloc agreeing to join the “military Schengen” as its most important outcome in order to increase these corridors’ efficacy. Removing red tape in order to facilitate the free movement of troops and equipment entails sacrificing more of each member’s sovereignty, which Hungary and Slovakia probably won’t agree to, but the rest’s participation would set the basis for the US’ envisaged “Fortress Europe”.

This concept refers to the American-backed but German-driven militarization of the EU, which would see Berlin lead the bloc’s anti-Russian containment on Washington’s behalf after the Ukrainian Conflict inevitably ends in order for the US to “Pivot (back) to Asia” for more muscularly containing China. “Fortress Europe” is therefore a long-term project, not something that’ll be completed anytime soon, especially since NATO also needs to ramp up its military-industrial production to compete with Russia.

Nevertheless, the importance of optimizing military logistics across Europe can’t be overestimated since increasing the efficacy of the five corridors that The Telegraph drew attention to will make it much easier for Germany to manage Russia’s post-conflict containment under the US’ supervision. Getting most members to agree to join the “military Schengen” is also the easiest way for NATO to spin its next summit as success and placate some of Ukraine’s disappointment at once again not being invited to join.

Kiev can be told without any sugarcoating that the steps taken during that event will make it easier for those who’ve extended it “security guarantees” to fulfill their promises to immediately dispatch military aid during a crisis. This could also help reassure those hawkish anti-Russian policymakers who believe that any pragmatic compromise on Ukraine would be to Moscow’s advantage since NATO could pair its forthcoming military-industrial production sites with the “military Schengen” during peacetime.

This can be done during the ongoing NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine, but the rate of the latter’s force depletion prevents the bloc from replenishing its own stockpiles since it has to continue supplying Kiev, and that in turn reduces the confidence that EU leaders have in their ability to “deter” Russia. Accordingly, freezing the conflict by year’s end becomes more attractive if they come to see it in this way, which could then enable them to more effectively prioritize these plans over the coming years.

In that event, new military-industrial sites could pop up along these five “military Schengen” corridors as well as supplementary ones like the German-Estonian corridor via Poland for fortifying the new Iron Curtain’s “Baltic Defense Line”, the purpose being to maximally militarize the EU. Conscription might return across the bloc, emergency training could be taught in all schools, and everyone would remain on edge like during the height of the Old Cold War, but this cold peace would still be better than a hot war.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/next-months-nato-summit-might-see-most-members-joining-military-schengen