Former US presidents, celebrities and thousands of members of the public have gathered to honour civil rights leader, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died last month.
Former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were among those who spoke at a memorial service in Chicago for the activist.
Mourners included former Vice President Kamala Harris, filmmaker Tyler Perry and former basketball star Isiah Thomas. The service also featured performances, including from singer and actress Jennifer Hudson.
Jackson, who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr, twice ran to be the Democratic nominee for president and founded the Rainbow PUSH coalition, a social justice and civil rights non-profit.
While praising Jackson in his remarks at the service, Obama made a thinly veiled mention of US President Donald Trump. He said, “Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions”.
He said the late reverend inspired people to take a harder path and called “on each of us to be heralds of change”.
Former Vice President Harris received a standing ovation when she spoke at the service. She appeared to take a jab at Trump, saying, “Let me just start out by saying: I predicted a lot of what is happening right now. I hate to say I told you so, but we did see it coming”.
But, she added, that she didn’t realise they would be tackling this moment without Jackson’s guidance.
Calling Jackson “impatient,” she noted, “He did not waste time waiting, even when the doors in front of him were barred and bolted, even if those on the other side hesitated or even ignored him. He always devised a way through”.
Civil rights leader, the Reverend Al Sharpton, who worked closely with Jackson during the civil rights movement, was also among the speakers. (BBC)
Pedro Sánchez has delivered a strong rebuttal to US President Donald Trump’s threat to end trade with Spain by restating his opposition to war and what he called the “breakdown of international law”.
In a 10-minute televised address, the Spanish prime minister reflected on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the Iraq War more than 20 years ago, and said the Spanish government’s position could be summed up as “no to war”.
Trump threatened to impose a full trade embargo on Spain in response to its refusal to allow the US to use the jointly run bases at Morón and Rotafor to strike Iran.
“Spain has been terrible,” Trump said during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday.
“We’re going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he added.
Merz said later he had told Trump very clearly that he could not conclude a separate trade agreement with Germany or all of Europe but not with Spain.
In response to the US economic threat, the Élysée Palace said French President Emmanuel Macron had conveyed his “solidarity” with Spain during a phone conversation with Sánchez on Wednesday. European Council President António Costa also said he had spoken to the Spanish leader “to express the EU’s full solidarity”.
Trump accused Spain on Tuesday of being a “terrible partner” in Nato for failing to increase its defence budget in line with a target of 5% of economic output (GDP).
Earlier this year, Sánchez drew Trump’s ire by speaking out against the US military incursion into Venezuela.
Sánchez said in his televised address from the prime minister’s official residence in Madrid on Wednesday that the government was studying economic measures to counter the impact of the conflict on Spaniards, though he avoided directly referring to Trump’s trade threat.
“The question is not if we are on the side of the ayatollahs [Iran’s clerical rulers] – nobody is. The question is whether we are in favour of peace and international legality,” he said.
“You cannot answer one illegality with another, because that is how the great catastrophes of humanity begin.”
Spain’s Socialist prime minister explained that the government’s position was comparable to its stance on Ukraine and Gaza. Sánchez has been a vociferous critic of Israel’s military response to the Hamas attacks in 2023.
Spain has been among Europe’s most outspoken governments on Gaza, describing Israel’s actions there as “genocide” and acknowledging a Palestinian state before many other EU members did.
That position was in step with his coalition partners to his left and, broadly speaking, with Spanish attitudes toward the Middle East.
Looking back to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, which he said had failed to achieve its goals and had made life worse for ordinary people, he warned that the attacks on Iran could have a similar economic impact for millions.
His reference to the Iraq invasion will connect with many Spanish voters. Spain’s support at the time from the conservative People’s Party (PP) government was deeply unpopular, and triggered mass anti-war protests.
Many believe it also lay the groundwork for the Socialist Party’s surprise election victory in March 2004, days after Madrid had been hit by deadly jihadist bombings.
Sánchez reminded Spaniards of the “Azores trio” – the then-US President George W Bush, the UK’s Tony Blair and Spanish conservative leader José María Aznar – who had met on a Portuguese base in the region days before the Iraq invasion.
He said they had handed Europeans the “gift” of “a more insecure world and worse life”.
The Spanish leader’s stance contrasts strongly with that of Merz, who told German TV on Tuesday that regime change in Iran would leave the world “a little better off”, though he also said this was “not without risk and we would also have to bear the consequences”.
Unlike Spain’s fellow Nato allies – the UK, France and Greece – it has not yet committed to any military involvement in response to the war.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that Spain had “agreed to co-operate” with the US military after hearing Trump’s message “loud and clear” – a claim Spanish foreign minister José Manuel Albares categorically denied, telling local media that his government’s position “has not changed one iota”. (BBC)
Former President Bill Clinton denied wrongdoing in his relationship with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as House Republicans grilled him on Feb. 27 about the late financier’s fundraising, numerous visits to the White House and pictures in Justice Department files.
Clinton, the first former president forced to testify before Congress, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in his opening statement that he “had no idea of the crimes Epstein was committing.” He dismissed the 20-year-old pictures from the department’s files and Epstein’s estate.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton said. “As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing – I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals.”
Upon exiting the session, Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, said questioning the former president was “very productive” while declining to elaborate.
“You’ll see the video. … Everybody knows President Clinton. He’s got Southern people skills; he’s a charming individual,” the congressman said. “We picked up new facts; we asked the Clintons where we should go from here.”
The former president’s deposition at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center, near the Clintons’ home in suburban New York, comes just a day after his wife and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified. The former first lady, who was also subpoenaed, told the committee on Feb. 26 she didn’t know Epstein and never flew on his plane. She called her deposition “repetitive” and a “fishing expedition.”
Video of the depositions will be released “within the next 24 hours,” Comer suggested.
GOP committee members said they have questions for the former first couple because Epstein visited the White House 17 times while Bill Clinton was president and then Clinton traveled 27 times on his private plane after leaving office. Clinton also appeared in a number of pictures released in the Epstein files with celebrities or in more casual surroundings with the faces of women redacted.
Comer said documents from the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate portray the late financier as raising money for the Clinton Global Initiative, a foundation seeking action on issues such as the climate and health care. Hillary Clinton told the committee Feb. 26 to ask her husband about it because she was a senator during the period in question.
“This is a historical day for the United States Congress,” Comer said. “Nobody is accusing anyone of any wrongdoing. But I think the American people have a lot of questions.”
The inquiry comes as lawmakers and women who accused Epstein of abuse have forced the Justice Department to released 3 million pages of documents about his criminal investigation. But millions more pages remain sealed, and President Donald Trump has said the country should move on.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of child sex trafficking. His associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term for conspiring to transport minors for illicit sex. Critics of the investigation have questioned why more coconspirators haven’t been charged. (USAToday)
Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran on Sunday and Iran responded with more missile barrages, a day after the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei pitched the Middle East and the global economy into deepening uncertainty.
Iran fired renewed missile barrages across the region. Israel’s ambulance service said nine people were killed in the town of Beit Shemesh, while the United Arab Emirates said Iranian attacks killed three people and Kuwait reported one dead.
Three U.S. service personnel were also killed and five seriously wounded, the first American casualties of the operation, the U.S. military said, without giving further information.
U.S. and Israeli strikes – and Iranian retaliation – sent shockwaves through sectors from shipping to air travel to oil, amid warnings of rising energy costs and disruption to business in the Gulf, a strategic waterway and global trade hub.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the attack was intended to ensure Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, to contain its missile program and to eliminate threats to the United States and its allies.
In an interview with the Atlantic magazine on Sunday, Trump, who has encouraged the Iranian people to topple their government, said Iran’s leadership wanted to talk to him and he had agreed.
But he has yet to lay out his longer-term aims in Iran, which faces a power vacuum that could leave it in chaos, with unforeseeable consequences for the region.
Smoke rises following an explosion, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 1, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
As the first U.S. casualties were reported, and with the vital Strait of Hormuz closed and the glittering Gulf cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha under bombardment, the scale of the risk taken by Trump in launching the attack was becoming clearer.
Only around one in four Americans approve of the operation, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Sunday, and if Hormuz, which is the passage for about 20% of world oil supplies, remains closed for more than a few days, squeezed U.S. consumers will start to feel the pressure on prices at the pumps, months before vital midterm elections.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had hit three U.S. and UK oil tankers in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and attacked military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain with drones and missiles. Shipping data showed hundreds of vessels including oil and gas tankers dropping anchor in nearby waters with traders expecting sharp jumps in crude oil prices on Monday.
Global air travel was also heavily disrupted as continued air strikes kept major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai – the world’s busiest international hub – closed in one of the biggest aviation interruptions in recent years.
In Iran, facing its biggest existential challenge since the 1980-88 war with Iraq, President Masoud Pezeshkian said a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardians Council had temporarily assumed the duties of Supreme Leader.
Oman’s foreign ministry said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had indicated that Tehran was open to any serious efforts at de-escalation.
But it remained unclear what the longer-term prospects were for Iran to rebuild its leadership and replace the 86-year-old Khamenei, who had held power since the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced Khamenei’s death as a cynical murder and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi described it as “blatant killing”.
Israel, which has pressed successive U.S. administrations to take action against Iran, claimed responsibility for killing Khamenei, in what it said was a “precise, large-scale operation” guided by intelligence, while he was in his central leadership compound in the heart of Tehran.
It said it aimed to dominate the skies over Tehran, giving no sign of planning an end to the biggest aerial operation in its history, involving hundreds of fighter jets.
“We have the capabilities and the targets to keep going on for as long as necessary,” Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said.
Trump warned that the U.S. would hit Iran “with a force that has never been seen before” if it struck back.
Trump said on social media the U.S. military had destroyed nine Iranian warships so far and was “going after the rest.”
Inside Iran, some grieved for Khamenei while others celebrated his death, exposing a deep fault line in a country stunned by the sudden demise of the man who ruled for decades.
Thousands of Iranians were killed in a crackdown authorized by Khamenei against anti-government protests in January, the deadliest wave of unrest since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
Footage from Tehran showed mourners packed into a square, dressed in black and many of them weeping.
But videos posted on social media also showed joy and defiance elsewhere, with people cheering as a statue was toppled in the city of Dehloran in Ilam province, dancing in the streets of Karaj city, near Tehran in Alborz province, and celebrating in the streets of Izeh in Khuzestan province. Reuters has verified the locations of these videos.
Khamenei, who built Iran into a powerful anti-U.S. force and spread its sway across the Middle East during his 36-year iron-fisted rule, was working in his office at the time of Saturday’s attack, state media said. The raid also killed his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law. (JapanToday)
Iranian state media have confirmed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at his office in the Israeli-US attacks on Iran, following earlier reports of his killing by US and Israeli officials.
A 40-day mourning period for the longtime Iranian leader has been announced.
The Sunday confirmation comes after Iran’s Tasnim and Mehr news agencies initially reported that Khamenei remained “steadfast and firm in commanding the field”.
US President Donald Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform earlier in the day that 86-year-old Khamenei was killed in the joint US-Israeli strikes, which began early on Saturday.
“He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do,” Trump wrote.
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” he said. “Hopefully, the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots.”
While Iranian authorities have long planned for the possible killing of Khamenei in the event of a war with the US and Israel, his assassination injects new uncertainty into an unfolding conflict that has already spurred concerns that fighting could escalate and expand further.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier also claimed that there were “growing signs” that Khamenei had been killed.
Additionally, the Reuters news agency, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official, had reported that Khamenei’s body had been located.
Khamenei has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, succeeding the founder of the post-shah Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who steered Iran’s 1979 revolution.
The supreme leader holds ultimate authority over all branches of government, the military and the judiciary, while also acting as the country’s spiritual leader.
Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera that Iran “has a plan” in place in the event that Khamenei’s death is confirmed.
“There will probably be a council that will be set up to run the country. It may already have been running the country, as far as we know,” she said.
Saturday’s strikes on Iran targeted 24 provinces, killing at least 201 people, according to Iranian media reports, citing the Red Crescent.
Among the attacks, Israel struck two schools in Iran, killing at least 108 people at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in the southern city of Minab, and two others at a school east of the capital, Tehran.
Netanyahu said in his address that many “senior figures” had been “eliminated” in the wave of attacks targeting senior leaders, as Trump called for the government to be toppled.
Israel, Netanyahu said, had killed “commanders in the Revolutionary Guard and senior officials in the nuclear programme. And we will continue.”
Trump indicated on his Truth Social post that “heavy and pinpoint bombing” of Iran would go on “uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary”.
Iran’s counterattacks on Saturday triggered air-defence interceptions in several countries where airbases with US assets are hosted, including Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
On Saturday evening, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that the third and fourth waves of “retaliatory” strikes on US and Israeli positions were ongoing, according to a statement carried by the IRNA news agency.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that he deeply regretted that an opportunity for diplomacy had been “squandered”.
“Military action carries the risk of igniting a chain of events that no one can control in the most volatile region of the world,” he told the 15-member body. “I call for de-escalation and an immediate cessation of hostilities”.
Addressing the Security Council, Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, said the US and Israel had “initiated an unprovoked and premeditated aggression”, attacking “civilian populated areas in multiple large cities of Iran, where millions of people reside”.
“This is not only an act of aggression, it is a war crime, and a crime against humanity,” he said.
The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, insisted that the military action was lawful. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” he said. “That principle is not a matter of politics. It’s a matter of global security.”
China’s UN ambassador, Fu Cong, said Beijing was very concerned by “the sudden escalation of regional tensions”.
Russia’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, condemned the US-Israeli air strikes, demanding that the US and Israel “immediately cease their aggressive actions”. (AlJazeera)
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he will raise a temporary tariff from 10% to 15% on U.S. imports from all countries, the maximum level allowed under the law, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his previous tariff program.
The move came less than 24 hours after Trump announced a 10% across-the-board tariff on Friday after the court’s decision. The ruling found the president had exceeded his authority when he imposed an array of higher rates under an economic emergency law.
The new levies are grounded in a separate but untested law, known as Section 122, that allows tariffs up to 15% but requires congressional approval to extend them after 150 days. No president has previously invoked Section 122, and its use could lead to further legal challenges.
Trade experts and congressional aides are skeptical the Republican-majority Congress would extend the tariffs, given polls that show growing numbers of Americans blame the duties for higher prices.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he would use the 150-day period to work on issuing other “legally permissible” tariffs. The administration intends to rely on two other statutes that permit import taxes on specific products or countries based on investigations into national security or unfair trade practices.
“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he wrote in a Truth Social post.
The Section 122 tariffs include exemptions for certain products, including critical minerals, metals and energy products, according to the White House.
Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade official and senior vice president at the Asia Society think tank, said she was surprised Trump had not opted for the maximum Section 122 rate on Friday, adding that his rapid-fire change underscored the uncertainty trading partners faced.
The Supreme Court’s decision, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, concluded the law Trump had used for most of his tariffs, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, did not grant the president the powers he claimed.
Roberts was joined in the majority by fellow conservatives Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both Trump appointees, and the court’s three liberal justices.
Trump reacted with fury to the ruling, calling the justices in the majority “fools” and describing Gorsuch and Barrett in particular as “embarrassments,” while vowing to continue his global trade war.
Some foreign leaders applauded the decision. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday the ruling showed it is good for democracies to have counterweights to power and the rule of law.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he expected the decision would ease the burden on German companies. He said he would use his upcoming U.S. trip to reiterate that “tariffs harm everyone.” (JapanToday)
All 104 matches of the 2026 World Cup will be “sold out,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Wednesday, even though tickets are still available ahead of the tournament’s June 11 kickoff.
“The demand is there. Every match is sold out,” Infantino told CNBC.
Infantino, in an interview from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, said that there had been 508 million ticket requests in four weeks for some seven million available tickets.
He said requests during the main sales phase in January came from more than 200 countries.
“(We’ve) never see anything like that — incredible,” said Infantino, adding that football’s global governing body has kept “some tickets back” for the last-minute sales phase that will begin in April and run until the end of the World Cup on July 19.
Infantino addressed the issue of ticket prices, described as “exorbitant” by supporters associations and which have already reached record levels on resale sites.
“I think it is because it’s in America, Canada and Mexico,” he said. “Everybody wants to be part of something special.
“Ticket prices have been fixed but you have, in the US in particular, something called dynamic prices, meaning the prices will go up or down.
“You are able as well to resell your tickets on official platforms, secondary markets, so the prices as well will go up.
“That’s part of the market we are in.”
Infantino estimated that the first 48-team World Cup would bring FIFA some $11 billion or more in revenue, adding that “every dollar” will be reinvested in football in FIFA’s 211 member countries.
He put the World Cup’s impact on the US economy at around $30 billion “in terms of tourism, catering, security investments and so on.”
Infantino estimated that in addition to seven million spectators, the World cup would also attract 20 to 30 million tourists and create “185,000 full-time jobs”.
“It’s a big impact,” he said. “I hope this impact will not just be limited to the World Cup but for the future as well.” (Punch)
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has confirmed the arrival of 100 US military personnel and equipment in Nigeria, saying they arrived at Bauchi airfield.
Defence spokesman, Samaila Uba, in a statement on Monday, said the deployment follows a recent security agreement between Nigeria and the US.
Uba noted that the Federal Government had made a formal request to the US for assistance in terms of military training, technical support, and intelligence sharing with the members of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
“The collaboration will provide access to specialised technical capabilities aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s ability to deter terrorists’ threats and enhance the protection of vulnerable communities across the country,” the statement reads.
Uba said the US personnel are technical specialists serving strictly in an advisory and training capacity.
Noting that the US personnel are not combat forces, the defence spokesman noted that all training activities will be conducted under the authority, direction and control of the federal government and in close coordination with the Nigerian military.
Uba said Nigerian troops, alongside the US trainers, will commence a series of joint training engagements and intelligence-focused cooperation initiatives in the coming days.
“These activities are designed to enhance the capacity of Nigerian troops to effectively identify and neutralize extremist terrorist groups seeking to destabilize the nation,” he added.
Uba said the military remains fully committed to degrading and defeating terrorist groups that threaten the country’s sovereignty, national security, and the safety of its citizens.
He also assured Nigerians of continued transparency and the provision of clear, accurate, and timely information regarding the military cooperation efforts.
The deployment comes after months of mounting pressure from US President Donald Trump, who has strongly criticised Nigeria’s government for what he describes as its failure to adequately protect Christians from deadly attacks carried out by Islamist militants and armed groups.
He declared Nigeria a country of particular concern (CPC). But the Nigerian government has since rejected Trump’s claim, insisting that violence in the country affects people of all faiths and not only Christians.
Trump ordered airstrikes in Nigeria on Christmas Day, saying they targeted Islamic State terrorists in the North-west who are responsible for killing Christians.
He and Nigerian authorities later confirmed that the action was a collaborative effort.
Following discussions with Nigerian authorities in Abuja, the head of US Africa Command, General Dagvin Anderson, confirmed that a small team of US military officers was in Nigeria, focused on intelligence support.
Critics questioned the move, which they claim undermines Nigeria’s territorial integrity.
However, the DHQ clarified that the partnership with the US primarily focuses on capacity building, professional military education, intelligence sharing, logistics support, and strategic dialogue.
According to Uba, all engagements with the US are done with full respect for Nigeria’s sovereignty and existing bilateral frameworks.
Nigeria is facing a protracted fight with dozens of local armed groups increasingly battling for turf, including the homegrown Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, the ISIL affiliate in West Africa Province (ISWAP).
There is also the ISIL-linked Lakurawa, as well as other “bandit” groups that specialise in kidnapping for ransom and illegal mining.
Several thousand people in Nigeria have been killed, according to data from the United Nations. (Channels)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a reassuring message to America’s allies on Saturday, striking a less aggressive but still firm tone about the administration’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its priorities after more than a year of President Donald Trump’s often-hostile rhetoric toward traditional allies.
Reminding his audience at the annual Munich Security Conference about America’s centuries-long roots in Europe, Rubio said the United States would remain forever tied to the continent even as it pushes for changes in the relationship and the institutions that have been the bulwark of the post-World War II world order.
Rubio addressed the conference a year after Vice President JD Vance stunned the same audience with a harsh critique of European values. A series of Trump administration statements and moves targeting allies followed, including Trump’s short-lived threat last month to impose new tariffs on several European countries in a bid to secure U.S. control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
On Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had opened this year’s gathering by calling for the U.S. and Europe to “repair and revive trans-Atlantic trust together,” saying that even the U.S. isn’t powerful enough to go it alone in an world whose old order no longer exists. But he and other European officials made clear that they will stand by their values, including their approach to free speech, climate change and free trade.
While offering a calmer and more reassuring tone, Rubio made clear that the Trump administration is sticking to its guns on policy. He denounced “a climate cult” and “an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies.”
Rubio argued that the “euphoria” of the Western victory in the Cold War led to a “dangerous delusion that we had entered ‘the end of history,’ that every nation would now be a liberal democracy, that the ties formed by trade and by commerce alone would now replace nationhood … and that we would now live in a world without borders where everyone became a citizen of the world.”
“We made these mistakes together and now together we owe it to our people to face those facts and to move forward to rebuild,” Rubio said.
“This is why we Americans may sometimes come off as a little direct and urgent in our counsel,” he said. “This is why President Trump demands seriousness and reciprocity from our friends here in Europe.”
Rubio said that an end of the trans-Atlantic era “is neither our goal nor our wish,” adding that “our home may be in the Western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”
He acknowledged that “we have bled and died side-by-side on battlefields from Kapyong to Kandahar,” a contrast with disparaging remarks by Trump about NATO allies’ troops in Afghanistan that drew an outcry. “And I’m here today to make it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity. and that once again, we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends.”
U.S. officials accompanying Rubio said his message was much the same as Vance’s last year but was intended to have a softer landing on the audience, which they acknowledged had recoiled at much of Trump’s rhetoric over the past year.
The president of the European Union’s executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Rubio’s speech was “very reassuring” but noted that “in the administration, some have a harsher tone on these topics.”
In her speech to the conference, she stressed that “Europe must become more independent,” including on defense. She insisted on Europe’s “digital sovereignty” — its approach to hate speech on social media.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that “we shouldn’t get in the warm bath of complacency. He said the U.K. must reforge closer ties with Europe to help the continent “stand on our own two feet” in its own defense, and said there needs to be investment that “moves us from overdependence to interdependence.”
Hanno Pevkur, the defense minister of EU and NATO member Estonia, said it was “quite a bold statement to say that America is ‘a child of Europe’.”
“It was a good speech, needed here today, but that doesn’t mean that we can rest on pillows now,” he told The Associated Press. “So still a lot of work has to be done.”
Rubio didn’t mention Greenland. After last month’s escalation over Trump’s designs on the Arctic island, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.
The Secretary of State met briefly in Munich on Friday with the Danish and Greenlandic leaders, a meeting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described as constructive.
But Frederiksen suggested Saturday that although the dispute has cooled, she remains wary. Asked whether the crisis has passed, she replied: “No, unfortunately not. I think the desire from the U.S. president is exactly the same. He is very serious about this theme.”
Asked whether she can put a price on Greenland, she responded “of course not,” adding that “we have to respect sovereign states … and we have to respect people’s right for self-determination. And the Greenlandic people have been very clear, they don’t want to become Americans.” (JapanToday)
The real threat facing Hungary is not Russia but the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a speech to supporters on Saturday, as his nationalist party ramps up an anti-EU campaign ahead of national elections.
With only eight weeks until the April 12 vote, Orbán and his Fidesz party are facing their most serious challenge since the right-wing populist leader retook power in 2010.
Most independent polls show Fidesz trailing the center-right Tisza party and its leader, Péter Magyar, even as Orbán has campaigned on the unsubstantiated premise that the EU would send Hungarians to their deaths in neighboring Ukraine if his party loses.
In his speech on Saturday, Orbán compared the EU to the repressive Soviet regime that dominated Hungary for over 40 years last century, and dismissed the belief of many European leaders that Russian President Vladimir Putin poses a threat to the continent’s security.
“We must get used to the idea that those who love freedom should not fear the East, but Brussels,” he said, referring to the EU’s de-facto capital in Belgium.
“Fear-mongering about Putin is primitive and unserious. Brussels, however, is a palpable reality and a source of imminent danger,” he said “This is the bitter truth, and we will not tolerate it.”
Orbán has been a firm opponent of military and financial aid for Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion nearly four years ago, and has maintained close relations with Moscow while adopting a combative posture toward Hungary’s EU and NATO partners, which he portrays as warmongers.
In December, he said it was “unclear who attacked whom” when tens of thousands of Russian forces poured across Ukraine’s borders in February 2022.
Hungary’s government has long been at odds with the EU, which has frozen billions of euros in funding to Budapest over concerns that Orbán has dismantled democratic institutions, eroded judicial independence and overseen widespread official corruption. In return, Orbán has increasingly acted as a spoiler in EU decision making, routinely threatening to veto key policies like providing financial support for Ukraine.
As the elections approach, he has increasingly portrayed the Tisza party as a puppet created by the EU to overthrow his government and serve foreign interests, claims that Tisza has firmly denied. Magyar, the party’s leader, has pledged to repair Hungary’s strained relations with its Western allies, revive the stagnant economy and return the country to a more democratic track.
On Saturday, Orbán accused multinational corporations like banks and energy companies of profiting off the war in Ukraine, and conspiring with his political opposition to defeat him in the election.
“It is crystal clear that in Hungary the oil business, the banking world and the Brussels elite are preparing to form a government,” he said. “They need someone in Hungary who will never say no to Brussels’ demands.”
If his party wins a fifth-straight majority in the election, Orbán promised to push ahead with ridding Hungary of entities that he argues infringe on the country’s sovereignty.
He credited U.S. President Donald Trump, who has endorsed him ahead of the election, with creating an environment where “fake nongovernmental organizations and bought-and-paid-for journalists, judges and politicians” can be expelled.
“The new president of the United States has rebelled against the global business, media and political network of liberals, thus improving our chances,” he said. “We, too, can go a long way and expel foreign influence from Hungary, along with its agents, that limit our sovereignty.”
“The Brussels repressive machine is still operating in Hungary. We’ll clean it up after April,” he said. (JapanToday)
English