Emmanuel Macron is in the news again with his repeated suggestion that French troops could be sent to Ukraine to fight in the war there against Russian forces. This time it is in the supposedly prestigious British highbrow Economist, which is happy to repeat this empty mantra over and over again, largely, one supposes, as it supports a broader narrative of the EU which it is a servant of in Brussels. There is no relationship more unhealthy and repugnant than that of The Economist and the European Union with the former happy to play the role of free propagandist and PR enactor for the latter.

How Macron can keep repeating this entirely empty threat, which even he himself has admitted to a French magazine won't happen, is astounding. Did someone ask him to do this once again and arrange it in The Economist? Perhaps at a high level in Brussels?

How else to explain this latest ejaculation of utter nonsense?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto condemned the latest remarks and has warned such a move could ultimately spark an all-out nuclear war.

Speaking to French broadcaster LCI, Szijjarto strongly condemned the idea, saying that the French leader's comments themselves have contributed to escalating the situation.

"If a NATO member commits ground troops, it will be a direct NATO-Russia confrontation and it will then be World War Three," Szijjarto told the broadcaster.

Macron himself has moved on though since his original comments to the Parisienne magazine which kicked it all off a few weeks ago. The more recent interview with The Economist clearly shows that he has even reflected on his own rambling and looked deeper at how he could refine the narrative, presumably to get more attention on the issue. However, it's an act of a desperate politician, which analysts interpret one of two ways; it is either a cry of help directed towards the Biden administration to do the very act themselves and send American troops there; or it is simply a PR stunt to keep him in the international press, a zone which is like a crack addiction. Like Trump, Macron seems to want to do and say anything - no matter how absurd - to keep him on the front pages, so to speak.

Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt, who served at the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw and was the head of the legal department at the National Council of Judges, held a press conference in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on Monday where he arrived to ask for political asylum. BelTA's Russian-language report that can be read here summarizes his main points, which will be reviewed in this piece for the reader's convenience prior to being analyzed. Folks can also follow his regular updates on Telegram here.

Szmydt warned that the US wants to drag Poland into directly participating in the NATO-Russianproxywar in Ukraine but said that this could be averted if his country restored dialogue with Belarus, which he praised for its peaceful foreign policy and especially its prior commitment to the Minsk Accords. He can't speak freely in his own country, he said, which is why he and his friends used to turn off their phones when discussing sensitive topics before he fled.

Such a thing never happened in the past one hundred years since the United States stepped out of the Western Hemisphere as an imperial power — an adversary barging into one of its military bases abroad.

A military base is deemed sovereign territory and an unauthorised entry constitutes an affront, especially by Russia, a rival superpower. Yet, Washington and Moscow are playing down the co-habitation of their military personnel in the American air base near Niamey, capital of Niger, known as Airbase 101.

In the cacophony over the proxy war in Ukraine, perhaps, the news got submerged that the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin insisted that there was no "significant issue" in such co-habitation in Niger. Austin explained: "The Russians are in a separate compound and don't have access to US forces or access to our equipment. I am always focused on the safety and protection of our troops. But right now, I don't see a significant issue here in terms of our force protection."

Such uncharacteristic restraint by the Pentagon chief would probably be because Washington is in no position to evict the Russians now that Nigerien authorities have annulled the Status of Forces agreements with the US.

On the other hand, the Russian military personnel — reportedly drawn from the newly formed Africa Corps comprising erstwhile Wagner Group — arrived in Niger some three weeks ago at the invitation of the Nigerian government.

Equally, Washington must also have factored in that Niger's military, which had in the past worked closely with the US, while seeking cooperation with Russia, is stopping short of the full-fledged embrace of Moscow by military-run neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso. Arguably, it signals Niger's so-called "diversification of international partnerships" plan that keeps open prospects of a US comeback.

At any rate, Austin must be aware that this impasse in the US-Niger ties is largely to be attributed to the State Department's mishandling by officially designating the military takeover in Niamey last July as a "coup". The Rubicon was crossed in October when Washington triggered laws restricting the military support and aid that it can provide to Niger.

China accused an Australian military aircraft of conducting dangerous maneuvers, escalating a dispute over a recent incident involving the nations' two militaries.

"What truly happened was an Australian military aircraft deliberately flew within close range of China's airspace in a provocative move that endangered China's maritime air security in the name of enforcing a UN Security Council resolution," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press briefing on Tuesday.

Australia's Defence Department said earlier that a People's Liberation Army aircraft intercepted one of its helicopters in the Yellow Sea on May 4 and "released flares along the flight path." But Lin said the Chinese aircraft took "necessary measures" to alert the Australian chopper. He added that Beijing lodged a "serious protest" with Australia.

The CIA is engaged in an "infinite race" with China when it comes to AI and other top technologies, according to the agency's Chief Technology Officer, Nand Mulchandani, who outlined a strategy that prioritizes technological prowess as crucial to national security.

Speaking at the Hill & Valley Forum's gathering of top technology and government officials in Washington this week, Mulchandani's made it clear that the agency is aggressively pursuing advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) to bolster both offensive and defensive capabilities, the Washington Times reports.

"We're looking at transforming every single part of what the agency does," he stated, underscoring the depth of the CIA's commitment to integrating AI into its core operations. The agency's push includes the development of large language models, sophisticated algorithms that are the backbone of generative AI tools, aiming to enhance everything from field operations to analytical and support functions.

The Yemeni security services revealed they arrested several spies working for the US and Israel in recent days, SABA news agency reported on 6 May.

The security services announced that the spies were recruited to work on behalf of the US and Israel, noting that they belong to an intelligence entity called Force 400 led by a wanted spy, Ammar Afash.

The security services indicated that the arrested spies confessed to carrying out operations to monitor missile launch sites, drones, and the locations of Yemeni armed forces boats and to provide their coordinates to Force 400 for the purpose of targeting by US and UK warplanes.

An Israeli official said on 7 May that Tel Aviv is carrying out a "limited" operation in Rafah after Israel announced taking control of the southernmost city's border crossing with Egypt.

This is a "limited operation," the official told the Times of Israel. "It is being implemented to pressure Hamas" into accepting a ceasefire proposal.

CNN also cited a source saying that the "limited Israeli operation into Rafah is intended to keep pressure on Hamas to agree to a deal."

The crackdown on pro-Palestine campus protests might just make college kids hate the establishment again.

The American university crowd didn't seem to mind too much when the state was ushering in authoritarian green policies under the dodgy pretext of reducing the temperature of the planet. Or when campuses were banning right-wing speakers. Or when everyone was being forced to comply with their 'revolution' over personal pronoun usage. Or when unvaccinated fellow students were being banned from campus during the Covid-19 fiasco. But now that the Western establishment, from North America to Europe, is cracking down on campus protesters demonstrating against Israel's ongoing bombing of Gaza civilians, they're suddenly wondering where all their rights went.

If those who are now upset with the campus crackdowns had bothered to help expand the Overton window - that is, the range of acceptable speech and debate - back when others with whom they disagreed were trying to pry it open as widely as possible, they'd be reaping the benefits of true free speech now. Instead, the establishment has enjoyed a culture of impunity, enabled by the woke crowd and its constant demands for safe spaces. And now the government and universities have unilaterally decided that it's Israel that needs a safe space and protection from college kids.

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. Vladimir Putin will be sworn in as the Russian president for the fifth time during a ceremony to begin in the Kremlin at noon Moscow time on Tuesday, May 7.

The word 'inauguration' derives from the Latin 'inauguro', which means 'I devote' or "I dedicate'. This ceremony will be held for the eighth time in the contemporary history of Russia.

"Stunning on multiple levels":

Special Counsel Jack Smith's team admitted on Friday that key evidence in Trump's classified documents case was altered or manipulated - leaving two different chronologies; one that was digitally scanned vs. what's in the actual boxes.

Smith also misled the court, after originally telling U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that the boxes remained "in their original, intact form as seized," when in a footnote they conceded that they removed classified documents and left placeholder sheets, which prosecutors acknowledged has created an "inconsistent" record - in which some of the documents are no longer in the same order as they appear in digital scans made in the fall of 2022.

"The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court," the footnote reads, according to Just the News.