标签： Europe

On Friday morning, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin touched down in Vatican City to begin a scheduled private audience with Pope Leo XIV, marking a significant high-level diplomatic and faith-based engagement between Ireland and the Holy See. Martin and his spouse Mary were formally welcomed in Vatican’s iconic San Damaso Courtyard by Petar Rajic, Prefect of the Papal Household, alongside members of the papal gentlemen’s delegation.

Ahead of the closed-door meeting, which is scheduled to run for a maximum of 35 minutes, Martin outlined the key priorities he intends to raise during the discussion. Top of the agenda are the ongoing armed conflicts tearing through the Middle East, Ukraine, and Sudan, with the Taoiseach emphasizing a shared commitment between Ireland and the Holy See to advancing peace through dialogue. Martin also noted that Pope Leo XIV has centered his papacy on peace as a defining mission, aligning closely with Ireland’s long-held diplomatic priorities.

“We share many core values: a deep commitment to a rules-based international order, and a belief that dialogue and diplomacy are the only path to lasting peace,” Martin told reporters ahead of the audience. “I look forward to exchanging views with him on how we can collaborate to advance effective multilateralism as the most effective tool to tackle our shared global challenges and bring an end to ongoing conflicts.”

Domestically, Martin plans to update the Pope on the continuing reconciliation process across the island of Ireland, including the sensitive, critical work of addressing the violent legacy of decades of conflict known as the Troubles. The Taoiseach highlighted that faith leaders and clergy from all Christian denominations have played an indispensable role in advancing peace and reconciliation across Ireland, and that this input will be a core focus of the conversation.

The meeting will also create space for a frank reflection on the historical relationship between the Irish government and the Catholic Church, including the ongoing harms and unmet needs of survivors of clerical abuse. Martin confirmed this difficult but necessary topic will not be avoided during the discussion.

Beyond his audience with the Pope, Martin has a full schedule of diplomatic and institutional engagements during his trip. He will hold a separate bilateral meeting with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the top diplomat of the Holy See, before traveling to the Pontifical Irish College in Rome. During his stop at the college, Martin will meet with members of its community, tour the institution’s historic archives, and announce new Irish government funding to support the cataloguing, digitization, and long-term preservation of the archive collection. This investment is part of a broader project to improve conservation, expand public access, and boost outreach for the college’s historical holdings.

The Vatican visit comes at a key juncture for Irish foreign policy: ahead of Ireland’s assumption of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which begins on 1 July. Martin confirmed he will outline Ireland’s policy priorities and planned agenda for the six-month presidency during his discussions at the Vatican.

Following the conclusion of his engagements in Vatican City, Martin will travel to Rome for a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later on Friday. This stop follows a bilateral meeting Martin held with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris on Thursday, as part of a broader European diplomatic tour ahead of Ireland’s EU presidency.

The meeting marks the latest high-level engagement between Irish leaders and the Vatican. In 2018, then-Taoiseach Leo Varadkar met with Pope Francis during the Pope’s historic visit to Ireland, the first papal visit to the country in 39 years. Speaking in 2025, Varadkar noted that the 2018 meeting took place at a time when relations between the Irish state and the Catholic Church were already strained, amid ongoing reckoning with the clerical abuse crisis.

Helsingborg, Sweden – Just weeks after announcing a drawdown of 5,000 U.S. troops from Europe, U.S. President Donald Trump has reversed course with a new order to deploy an additional 5,000 American service members to Poland – a sudden policy shift that has left NATO allies and senior U.S. defense officials confused and scrambling to adjust.

Speaking to reporters Friday on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers meeting she hosted in southern Sweden, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard acknowledged the widespread uncertainty, noting that the abrupt reversal had created a complex, unclear landscape for alliance coordination. The gathering included U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with top diplomatic representatives from across the 32-nation bloc.

The confusion extends across the Atlantic, even within U.S. defense circles. Two senior U.S. defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal military planning, confirmed that uniformed and civilian defense leaders have been left just as puzzled as alliance partners. “We just spent the better part of two weeks reacting to the first announcement. We don’t know what this means either,” one official said.

Trump broke the news of his new policy in a post on his Truth Social platform, framing the deployment as a gesture of goodwill rooted in his close personal relationship with Polish President Karol Nawrocki, whom Trump publicly endorsed during Poland’s 2024 presidential election. “I am pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland,” Trump wrote.

This latest announcement marks a stark about-face after weeks of inconsistent messaging from Trump and his administration, all of which previously centered on plans to shrink – not expand – the U.S. military footprint across the European continent. Earlier this month, the White House confirmed it would cut U.S. troop levels in Europe by roughly 5,000 personnel, with U.S. officials confirming that around 4,000 scheduled rotational deployments to Poland would be canceled.

That initial drawdown announcement came after Trump publicly took umbrage at comments from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who criticized the U.S. approach to the ongoing conflict with Iran, saying Washington had been “humiliated” by Iranian leadership and lacked a coherent strategy for the war. In response, Trump told reporters the U.S. would cut troop levels “a lot further than 5,000” and unveiled new punitive tariffs on European passenger vehicles – a move that directly targeted Germany, the European Union’s largest and most economically influential automaker.

NATO leadership was caught off guard by the sudden policy reversal, despite prior public pledges from U.S. officials that all changes to European force posture would be fully coordinated with alliance partners. As recently as Wednesday, NATO’s top military officer, U.S. Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, publicly reaffirmed that the U.S. would “stay well-synchronized with our allies moving forward.”

Current U.S. military posture in Europe places roughly 80,000 American troops across the continent, under existing Pentagon rules that require a minimum of 76,000 troops and key military equipment to be permanently stationed in Europe – unless NATO allies are consulted first, and a full review confirms a drawdown serves core U.S. national security interests. The initial planned withdrawal of 5,000 troops would have pushed total force levels below this legal mandated threshold.

For Poland, Trump’s reversal has been met with cautious approval. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski welcomed the new deployment, noting that it will keep overall U.S. troop presence in Poland “more or less at previous levels,” preserving the security reassurance that has anchored Polish defense policy for decades.

This report was compiled from contributions by Cook in Brussels and Emma Burrows in London.

BELGRADE, Serbia — As a new year of political opposition unfolds in the Balkan nation, Serbia’s dissident university student movement is preparing to stage its first major mass gathering this weekend, reigniting a grassroots campaign for sweeping systemic change under the long-ruling authoritarian administration of President Aleksandar Vucic.

Organizers expect thousands of participants to travel from across the country to converge on Belgrade’s iconic Slavija Square on Saturday, a location already etched into the nation’s recent protest history. This site hosted a massive anti-government demonstration last March, a gathering that ended abruptly amid contested claims that state forces deployed a sonic weapon against peaceful attendees — an allegation Vucic’s government has repeatedly denied.

This student-led movement first emerged as a formidable political force in late 2024, galvanized by public outrage over the Novi Sad train station collapse that killed 16 people. The tragedy struck a deep chord across Serbian society, with widespread public belief that the disaster stemmed from endemic corruption and systemic negligence in state-funded infrastructure projects. What began as a call for accountability quickly ballooned into a months-long nationwide movement: students blocked university faculties across the country throughout 2025, successfully forcing the resignation of former Prime Minister Milos Vucevic and his entire cabinet. Protesters argued this step was insufficient, however, and have continued to demand early national elections — a call Vucic has so far refused to answer.

Last year, the movement anchored a sweeping wave of anti-corruption street protests that posed one of the most significant threats to Vucic’s power in years. Today, student leaders say their efforts are now focused on upcoming national elections, expected to take place either later this year or in 2027, which they aim to use to remove Vucic’s right-wing populist government from power.

“We hope a great many people will join us, spend the day with our movement, and continue standing with students as we prepare for these elections,” youth movement representative Isidora Jovanovic told the Associated Press. “Serbia is long overdue for change, and students are the ones who will deliver that change.”

Tensions have already been building in the capital in the lead-up to Saturday’s rally. On Tuesday, police were forced to intervene to separate pro-Vucic loyalists from students printing “Students win” protest materials. Just days before that confrontation, an elderly man was injured when a driver rammed through a student-organized traffic blockade in central Belgrade. These incidents are not isolated: political violence has marred opposition gatherings for months, including clashes that disrupted local elections last March.

Jovanovic emphasized that event organizers have taken extensive steps to prevent unrest at Saturday’s gathering, noting that many attendees will be traveling from out of town. “We do not want any of our fellow citizens to leave with a bad experience or injuries,” she said.

Political analysts note that the once-reactive student movement has matured into a cohesive political force capable of challenging Vucic’s long-dominant Serbian Progressive Party. Dusan Vucicevic, a professor at Belgrade’s Faculty of Political Sciences, told the AP that the movement commands broad cross-public support and is positioned to deliver strong results in any future election.

“We finally have a legitimate political group that can effectively challenge the Serbian Progressive Party and Aleksandar Vucic himself,” Vucicevic said.

Vucic has not remained passive in the face of this growing opposition. Pro-government media outlets have repeatedly labeled student protesters and other critics as foreign-backed terrorists and agents seeking to destabilize Serbia, a rhetoric that has deepened the country’s already stark political divisions. For Saturday’s rally, Vucic’s loyalists are expected to occupy a pro-government park camp outside the presidency building that Vucic established last March, widely seen as a deliberate buffer against opposition demonstrations. Multiple attacks on protesters and journalists have been reported near the camp since its establishment.

Allegations of excessive force by police and arbitrary detentions of opposition activists have drawn sharp international scrutiny of Vucic’s government. The European Union has warned that Serbia’s ongoing democratic backsliding could result in the loss of roughly 1.5 billion euros ($1.8 billion) in accession funding allocated to the country as a candidate for EU membership.

Despite rising tensions and the threat of confrontation, a new generation of young Serbs is stepping up to join the movement, expressing unshakable optimism that political change is within reach. Branislav Vasic and Filip Novakovic, both 19-year-old freshmen at the Faculty of Political Sciences, confirmed they will be among the attendees at Saturday’s rally, saying standing with older opposition leaders is a matter of principle.

“Everyone has an obligation to join this rally, given the state of our country,” Vasic said. “I’m convinced that as long as people want change, we have the strength to deliver it.”

Novakovic echoed that sentiment, framing the moment as a historic opportunity for his generation to finish the work past generations could not complete. “We are all in this together, and we are one step away from a better future,” he said. “This is a long struggle, and I will keep fighting for it as long as I live.”