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A leading figure in the Biden administration has backed a recovery programme for Ukraine in the style of the Marshall plan, which helped rebuild Europe after the second world war.Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary, said there was plenty of political will at home and internationally towards cooperating in long-term reconstruction efforts including to buttress existing infrastructure in Ukraine.

Lawmakers for both parties are looking to seize the opportunity for Ukrainian military aid before newly elected members are sworn in.This week House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is likely to take over as speaker if the GOP wins a majority in the House in the midterms, warned Republicans are "not going to write a blank check to Ukraine."Last month, Congress approved $12 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine. Congress already has allocated a total of $65 billion in aid since Russia's attack in February. Sources believe the next package will be dramatically larger. A Republican senator told...

Can Brussels raid the tens of billions of euros in Russian assets frozen by the European Union to pay for Ukraine’s recovery? This thorny legal question is currently under examination by the EU Commission as the cash-strapped bloc looks for potentially €18 billion ($18 billion) next year to keep Ukraine afloat as it fends off Moscow’s invasion. Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission's president, told reporters on Tuesday in Berlin that she had set up a task force to both map what assets exist as well as the preconditions that must be met to seize them. “The will is...

KYIV, Ukraine—Winter is approaching on the Ukrainian steppe. As temperatures fall, waves of chilling rain follow, dissolving roads and fields, turning them to mud that mires men and equipment. Then comes the deep freeze and snow, hardening the ground but making it tougher to fight. Armies on both sides of the war in Ukraine are girding for the unforgiving weather and shorter days of winter, which will affect the health and morale of troops, diminish the effectiveness of weapons and intelligence-gathering sensors and multiply the logistical difficulties of keeping soldiers in the field. “Land warfare is generally very difficult. Winter...

A leading figure in the Biden administration has backed a recovery programme for Ukraine in the style of the Marshall plan, which helped rebuild Europe after the second world war.Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary, said there was plenty of political will at home and internationally towards cooperating in long-term reconstruction efforts including to buttress existing infrastructure in Ukraine.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on Wednesday called for an end to oil, gas, and coal use in favor of renewable sources as part of a self-described global climate Marshall Plan. The veteran Portuguese Socialist spoke ahead of the upcoming World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which has already issued its own call for net-zero carbon emissions to be driven by a wider embrace of solar and wind power sources without delay.

Emmanuel Macron has warned it could take decades for Ukraine to join the EU as he proposed a new political organisation on the continent. During a speech marking Europe Day in Strasbourg, the French president said 'we all know perfectly that the process of allowing (Ukraine) to join would take several years, in fact probably several decades.' He added: 'That is the truth, unless we decide to lower the standards for accession. And rethink the unity of our Europe.' He also said that Europe must learn from its past mistakes to ensure Russia is not 'humiliated' in peace negotiations.

After the tragedy of war The Marshall Plan rebuilt economies. American wealth, generosity and hard work made it possible. Now before tragedy strikes and before we know what the damage will be, around the world we are stopping work and spending money. And we call it war. Against whom? Ourselves? https://freedom-demokrasi-and-civilised-humanity.com/2020/04/03/the-marshall-plan/

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has largely abandoned support for the European Union’s migrant quota system, instead, pushing for what she has termed “flexible solidarity” and a “Marshall Plan” for Africa to prevent illegal migration. Merkel made her remarks on Wednesday at a meeting of the European People’s Party, a European Union parliamentary group of which Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CSU) is a member, Le Point reports. “If we fail to provide a common answer to questions of illegal migration, the foundations of the European Union will be called into question. Action is really needed here,” she said. Merkel appeared to...

"It is the greatest success in the history of American foreign policy," Mark Stoler, editor of the George C. Marshall Papers in Lexington, Va. "And it plays to the best American instincts — helping those in need. "In the process, it clearly turned America into the world's superpower. It was the key component of American Cold War strategy. And it was an immediate psychological booster shot to Europe. Marshall's message was: 'Here is a lifeline that you can take advantage of. America is going to be the leader here and accept that mantel of leadership.'" Georges Bidault, France's prime minister...

We are our brothers’ keepers, and we need to be wise as we plan international policy and personal treatment. Nevertheless, it is idealistic and unreasonable to expect that the insane consequences of our human condition will be eradicated this side of eternity.

The head of the main Syrian opposition group called Tuesday for a massive aid program to help rebuild his country, if and when the regime of President Bashar Assad falls, and warned that a lack of economic development would open the door to extremism.

The European Commission is preparing a €200 billion “pact for growth” to be presented at the next EU summit in June. According to leading Spanish newspaper, El País, the plan aims to raise funds valued at €200 billion for investments in infrastructure, renewable energies and advanced technologies with the involvement of the private sector, in a bid to kick-start economic growth without raising public debt in the 27 member states. The plan, which takes into consideration ideas of the French Socialist front-runner François Hollande, namely leveraging the European Investment Bank to boost growth and jobs, will be presented after the...

MONEY can't buy you love. This week George W Bush flies into Europe to mark the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan - the massive reconstruction effort that enabled western Europe to rise to prosperity from the ashes of the second world war. The president's European tour, which will include a visit to Belfast, comes on the back of a YouGov poll published last week that reveals the extent of European hostility towards the US. Asked "Do you think the United States is overall a force for good or evil in today's world?", an astonishing 43% of respondents said "force...

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED ... Years after the end of the war, American G.I.'s were often asked why they fought so hard in the Second World War and the answer was almost always the same: "So my kids don't have to come over here and do this again" ... The American nation was shocked at the cost of the First World War and chose to enter a period of isolation afterwards but the result was not peace,... The cost of the 'peace movement' that formed at the end of the First World War could be measured in real terms of the 52...

The city needs a "Marshall Plan" to curb soaring gang violence by reducing inner-city poverty and the lure of thug life, a consulting group said Friday. Two decades of piecemeal efforts in the nation's "gang capital of the world" have failed and it is time for the city to bring together prevention, intervention and community redevelopment programs under a single umbrella, according to a final report issued by Advancement Project Los Angeles. The city has an estimated 40,000 members in 700 gangs. Nearly three-fourths of all youth gang-related killings in California have occurred in Los Angeles County and the city...

President Bush has just concluded his obligatory speech from New Orleans to tell us how we're all going to be heavily involved and invested in the rebuilding of the Crescent City. Let's take a quick look at his laundry list -- a list for which he neglected to name a price tag. • The federal government will "do what it takes" and will "stay as long as it takes" -- great, just what I wanted to hear. • States will be reimbursed for their efforts in responding to Katrina. Does that include states like North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Montana...

Ibrahim al-Jaafari: A Marshall Plan could transform Iraq June 28, 2005 LAST week I was at Blair House in the centre of Washington, DC. In this house is the table on which George Marshall in June 1947 signed the plan to pump today's equivalent of $US500 billion ($647 billion) into the impoverished economies of Europe as an investment against future conflict. The plan was controversial but nobody would now deny its far-sightedness. Nazism gave way to a lasting democracy, economic devastation was replaced by slow but sure progress towards economic regeneration. Consider the Germany of 1945 and the Germany of...

Since World War II, the U.S. has spent $1.2 trillion on foreign aid to 70 countries – and all are worse off than they were in 1980, according to the U.N. Britain's Tony Blair will ask President Bush to join him in creating a "Marshall Plan for Africa," pouring vast amounts of aid into African countries. But it's doomed to fail, according to Investor's Business Daily (IBD). The original Marshall plan cost the U.S. $13 billion – equal to about $100 billion in today's dollars – between 1948 and 1951. But the countries it aided in postwar Europe had scientists,...