WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, added his voice on Monday to growing calls from prominent Republicans to pass billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine, after some party members accused aid opponents of succumbing to Russian propaganda.
Democratic President Joe Biden’s request for $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel and other allies passed the US Senate with 70 percent support but has been stalled for weeks in the House of Representatives as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to allow a vote.
As lawmakers returned to Washington from a two-week break on Monday, Johnson gave no word of any plans for a vote on Biden’s supplemental request.
Pompeo, a former House member, issued a public letter on Monday urging Johnson to bring up the bill in the House.
“We encourage you to lead with conviction and bring the aid package to a vote,” Pompeo said in a letter written with John Walter, president of the Hudson Institute, where Pompeo is a fellow.
Johnson’s office did not comment on the letter, or recent assertions by the Republican chairpersons of two House national security committees that “Russian propaganda” is influencing party members.
Representative Michael McCaul, who leads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Puck News last week: “Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it’s infected a good chunk of my party’s base.”
And on Sunday, Representative Mike Turner, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN’s “State of the Union” McCaul’s contention was “absolutely true.”
Turner said: “We see directly coming from Russia attempts to mask communications that are anti-Ukraine and pro-Russia messages, some of which we even hear being uttered on the House floor.”
For example, Turner said some members of Congress “incorrectly” say that the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is over NATO.
“To the extent that this propaganda takes hold, it makes it more difficult for us to really see this as an authoritarian versus democracy battle,” Turner said.
US Republicans urge Ukraine aid vote, after ‘Russian propaganda’ warnings
https://arab.news/v4324
US Republicans urge Ukraine aid vote, after ‘Russian propaganda’ warnings
- Pompeo, a former House member, issued a public letter on Monday urging Johnson to bring up the bill in the House
Faced with Trump, Greenlanders try to reassure their children
- Since Trump returned to the White House last year with a renewed ambition to seize Greenland, international politics has intruded into the Arctic island’s households
NUUK: In a coffee shop in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, Lykke Lynge looked fondly at her four kids as they sipped their hot chocolate, seemingly oblivious to the world’s convulsions.
Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year with a renewed ambition to seize Greenland, international politics has intruded into the Arctic island’s households.
Dictated by the more or less threatening pronouncements of the US president, it has been an unsettling experience for some people here — but everyone is trying to reassure their children.
Lynge, a 42-year-old lawyer, relied on her Christian faith.
“There’s a lot of turmoil in the world,” she said. “But even if we love our country, we have even higher values that allow us to sleep soundly and not be afraid,” she said.
As early as January 27, 2025, one week after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Greenlandic authorities published a guide entitled “How to talk to children in times of uncertainty?“
“When somebody says they will come to take our country or they will bomb us or something, then of course children will get very scared because they cannot navigate for themselves in all this news,” said Tina Dam, chief program officer for Unicef in the Danish territory.
- Unanswerable questions -
This guide — to which the UN agency for children contributed — recommends parents remain calm and open, listen to their children and be sensitive to their feelings, and limit their own news consumption.
As in many parts of the world, social media, particularly TikTok, has become the primary source of information for young people.
Today, children have access to a lot of information not meant for them, said Dam — “and definitely not appropriate for their age,” she added.
“So that’s why we need to be aware of that as adults and be protective about our children and be able to talk with our children about the things they hear — because the rhetoric is quite aggressive.”
But reassuring children is difficult when you do not have the answers to many of the questions yourself.
Arnakkuluk Jo Kleist, a 41-year-old consultant, said she talked a lot with her 13-year-old daughter, Manumina.
The teenager is also immersed in TikTok videos but “doesn’t seem very nervous, luckily, as much as maybe we are,” she added.
“Sometimes there are questions she’s asking — about what if this happens — that I don’t have any answers to” — because no one actually has the answer to such questions, she said.
- ‘Dear Donald Trump’ -
The Arctic territory’s Inuit culture also helped, said Kleist.
“We have a history and we have conditions in our country where sometimes things happen and we are used to being in situations that are out of our control,” said Kleist.
“We try to adapt to it and say, well, what can I do in this situation?“
Some Greenlandic children and teenagers are also using social media to get their message out to the world.
Seven-year-old Marley and his 14-year-old sister Mila were behind a viral video viewed more than two million times on Instagram — the equivalent of 35 times the population of Greenland.
Serious in subject but lighthearted in tone, the boy addresses the American president.
“Dear Donald Trump, I have a message for you: you are making Greenlandic kids scared.”
Accompanied by hard stares, some serious finger-wagging and mostly straight faces, he and his sister go on to tell Trump: “Greenland is not for sale.”
“It’s a way to cope,” his mother, Paninnguaq Heilmann-Sigurdsen, told AFP of the video. “It’s kid-friendly, but also serious.
“I think it’s a balance between this is very serious, but also, this is with kids.”
