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  • Venice Biennale jury resigns days before start of exhibition

    Venice Biennale jury resigns days before start of exhibition

    Nine days before the launch of one of the global art world’s most prestigious annual events, the Venice Biennale has been thrown into unprecedented chaos after its entire five-person jury stepped down in protest over the decision to allow Russia and Israel to participate in the 2026 exhibition. The sudden mass resignation caps weeks of escalating tension sparked by the Biennale’s choice to welcome Russia back to the event for the first time since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

    In a short public statement announcing their departure, the jury clarified that their resignation aligned with a prior position they had taken: they would refuse to award any official prizes to participating nations whose leaders face active charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC). That standard covers both Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin has an open ICC arrest warrant alleging responsibility for war crimes in Ukraine, and Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are also the subject of ICC arrest warrants connected to alleged crimes against humanity in the ongoing Gaza conflict. Moscow and Jerusalem have both uniformly rejected the ICC’s charges as illegitimate and baseless.

    The controversy over Russia’s return has roiled European political and cultural circles for months. Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni acknowledged publicly that her government does not support the decision to allow Russia to participate, but stopped short of forcing a reversal, noting the Venice Biennale operates as an autonomous cultural institution with an independent leadership. A day before the jury’s resignation, a delegation from Italy’s culture ministry traveled to Venice to conduct an on-site review of arrangements for the reactivated Russian pavilion. Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli had already announced he would boycott the entire Biennale opening in protest of Russia’s participation, and Italian authorities are currently investigating whether the country’s readmission violates existing EU sanctions against Moscow.

    The European Union had already pulled a €2 million grant earmarked for the Biennale in April over the Russian participation decision, calling the move morally unacceptable at a time when Russia continues to target and erase Ukrainian cultural heritage amid its ongoing invasion. Over the course of the full-scale war, Ukrainian authorities have documented the destruction of more than 1,000 cultural sites, including hundreds of museums and galleries, the looting of tens of thousands of artworks, and the deaths of nearly 100 Ukrainian artists amid combat operations. For the Kremlin, returning to the Venice Biennale is viewed as a key step toward rebuilding the international diplomatic and cultural normalization it has actively pursued since 2022, even as daily fighting continues to claim civilian and military lives in Ukraine.

    The Biennale’s leadership has defended its decision to keep Russia in the line-up on two core grounds. The institution has long framed itself as an open space for global art that rejects censorship and exclusion of any participant. It has also noted that Russia holds full legal ownership of its dedicated pavilion in the Biennale Gardens, the main exhibition site, giving the institution no legal mechanism to bar the country from using the space. This is not the first time the Russian pavilion has seen disruption since the invasion: in 2022, the appointed Russian curator and all participating artists withdrew in protest of Putin’s war, leaving the space empty. For the 2024 edition, Russia allowed Bolivia to host its exhibition in the pavilion instead.

    This year’s Russian exhibition is scheduled to be a sound-based performance work titled *The Tree is Rooted in the Sky*, though multiple unconfirmed reports have suggested Italian authorities may restrict public access to the pavilion once the Biennale opens. Israel’s foreign ministry has already condemned the jury’s initial position excluding it from prizes, calling the move an example of dangerous political contamination of the international art community.

    In the wake of the jury’s mass resignation, Biennale organizers have canceled the traditional prize awarding ceremony scheduled for the May 9 inauguration. Instead of a jury-selected set of awards, the public will now get the opportunity to vote for their favorite national pavilions to receive popular recognition for the 2026 edition.

  • Belgium plans to nationalise nuclear power plants

    Belgium plans to nationalise nuclear power plants

    In a landmark shift for European energy policy, Belgium’s federal government has announced a sweeping plan to acquire the country’s entire nuclear reactor fleet from French energy multinational Engie, a move designed to shore up long-term energy security and roll back a 20-year commitment to phasing out nuclear power entirely.

    Prime Minister Bart De Wever confirmed the proposal would involve a full acquisition of all seven Belgian nuclear reactors, most of which have aged past their originally planned 40-year operating lifespans. The announcement immediately pauses all ongoing decommissioning work for the reactors, turning decades of existing energy policy on its head.

    “This government is choosing safe, affordable and sustainable energy, with less dependence on fossil fuel imports and more control over our own supply,” De Wever wrote in a post on social platform X.

    The decision reverses nuclear phase-out legislation passed in the early 2000s, which was drafted in response to widespread public safety concerns following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. That original law banned the construction of new nuclear facilities and capped the operating life of all existing reactors at 40 years, setting a full phase-out deadline of 2025 for the entire fleet.

    Currently, only two reactors — one at the Doel plant and one at the Tihange facility — remain operational. Their operating licenses were extended to 2035 in recent years amid growing energy instability across Europe. The remaining five reactors were taken offline between 2022 and 2025, and all planned dismantling work for these units will now be put on hold as the government explores options to restart or repurpose them.

    Both the Belgian government and Engie have set a target of October 1 to finalize the terms of the full takeover. In a joint statement released alongside Engie, the administration noted that the acquisition supports two broader goals: extending the operating lifespan of the still-functional reactors and developing new nuclear generation capacity across the country in the coming years.

    “By doing so, the Belgian Government is taking responsibility for Belgium’s long-term energy future, with the objective of building a financially and economically viable activity that supports security of supply, climate objectives, industrial resilience and socio-economic prosperity,” the statement added.

    Belgium is far from alone in making this dramatic policy shift. Across the European continent, a growing number of nations that once committed to phasing out nuclear power are now reversing course amid multiple interconnected crises: volatility in global fossil fuel markets triggered by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, escalating pressure to cut carbon emissions to meet EU climate targets, and growing demand for stable baseload power to complement intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

    For decades, Belgium’s nuclear program has been mired in controversy. The aging reactors have been repeatedly shut down for emergency safety inspections, and their extended operation has sparked persistent anxiety in neighboring countries. Tensions reached a peak in 2015, when cross-border communities and local governments issued formal complaints over plans to extend the reactors’ operating lives beyond their original 40-year design parameters. In 2017, the German city of Aachen, located just tens of kilometers from the Belgian border, began distributing free iodine tablets to residents as a precaution against potential radiation leaks from the Tihange plant, which had recently been shut down to fix discovered cracks and water pipe leaks.

  • Trump says he’s lifting certain tariffs on Scotch whisky after royal visit

    Trump says he’s lifting certain tariffs on Scotch whisky after royal visit

    In a social media announcement made Thursday, former U.S. President Donald Trump revealed that he will lift specific tariffs on Scotch whisky, a decision that came just days after King Charles III and Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom completed an official visit to the White House this week.

    Trump posted that the British monarch and his wife convinced him to take a step no other political or diplomatic party had managed to push through, noting that the request barely required any formal asking on their part. He added that industry stakeholders across both countries have long pushed for this policy adjustment, particularly surrounding rules surrounding the wooden barrels used to age both Scotch whisky and American bourbon.

    This tariff announcement fits a longstanding pattern of the Trump administration using alcohol trade policies as a leverage point in international trade negotiations. Just one year prior, Trump made headlines threatening to impose a steep 200% tariff on imported European wine, a move that would have delivered a devastating financial blow to winemaking operations across France and Italy. That threatened tariff ultimately never took effect.

    In response to past U.S. tariff measures, foreign trading partners have repeatedly retaliated with their own targeted tariff threats against American bourbon and other U.S.-made goods. In a previous resolution that eased cross-Atlantic trade tensions, the Trump administration ultimately granted a full tariff exemption for cork, a decision that was widely celebrated by Portugal, the world’s top supplier of the material used to seal most wine bottles.

    Following Trump’s social media announcement, Chris Swonger, president and chief executive officer of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, confirmed that the policy change would remove the existing 10% tariff on whisky imported from the United Kingdom. In an official statement, Swonger applauded the former president’s move to reinstate what he called a tested “zero-for-zero” framework for fair, reciprocal trade between the U.S. and the UK. He added that the tariff removal will strengthen longstanding transatlantic economic ties, deliver much-needed market stability for spirit producers on both sides of the Atlantic, and create space for industry growth, capital investment, and job support at a time of global economic uncertainty.

  • King Charles III boosts his charity fundraiser with first appearance at gala joined by Lionel Richie

    King Charles III boosts his charity fundraiser with first appearance at gala joined by Lionel Richie

    NEW YORK — New York City’s annual spring gala season, a calendar of glitzy black-tie fundraisers that regularly draws A-list artists, fashion elite and high-profile public figures, kicked off its most anticipated event of 2024 Wednesday night: The King’s Trust Global Gala, held this year at Christie’s iconic Manhattan auction house. While the guest list already featured household names from across entertainment, fashion and business — including music legend Lionel Richie and Vogue doyenne Anna Wintour — the evening’s biggest draw was a surprise short appearance from none other than King Charles III, founder of the eponymous nonprofit.

    The monarch’s 3.5-minute keynote speech marked his first-ever appearance at the five-year-old global gala, drawing palpable excitement from the room. Even high-society attendees gathered along velvet rope barriers, craning to catch a glimpse of the British king during his first visit to the United States since his 2023 coronation. The four-day U.S. trip was already scheduled to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence and repair strains in the bilateral relationship, but the gala added a high-profile philanthropic centerpiece to his itinerary.

    Anticipation for Charles’ appearance rippled across the red carpet before the event. British beauty entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury told lifestyle icon Martha Stewart — who arrived in a shimmering sapphire gown — to relay to the King that she had chosen the “royal blue” shade specifically to honor his visit. Natasha Poonawalla, executive director of the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, summed up the mood of the room, noting “everyone’s been waiting for him.” Poonawalla added that Charles’ in-person appearance would significantly bolster the foundation’s global profile and mission.

    Those predictions held true: Organizers announced Wednesday night that the gala had raised more than $3 million, a new fundraising record for the event. The historic haul comes as The King’s Trust works to build a permanent endowment to support its programs in the United Kingdom and expand its reach across more than 20 other countries. Queen Camilla also joined Charles for the event, with organizers noting her presence further boosted donor interest.

    Founded 50 years ago by Charles, The King’s Trust delivers education and job training programs that have supported more than 1.5 million young people worldwide to secure stable employment. In his brief remarks before the gala dinner, Charles reflected on the organization’s five-decade impact, noting that many program graduates go on to pay the support forward to other disadvantaged young people facing similar barriers. He added a lighthearted touch to his remarks, joking that “Only now do quite a lot of them actually admit they got their start (with the trust).” Charles also exchanged playful banter with Lionel Richie after the singer announced he would not perform at the more intimate 2024 event, quipping that the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer “must gargle with port” to save his voice.

    Edward Enninful, former British Vogue editor-in-chief and gala co-chair, has witnessed the trust’s impact firsthand growing up in West London. He shared that his own cousins and brothers were able to build stable, successful lives despite being dismissed by mainstream society as “not worthy” of opportunity. Enninful called Charles’ New York appearance the nonprofit’s “glory moment.”

    “He’s set the example that philanthropy matters,” Enninful told the Associated Press. “No matter how well you are doing, you’re not doing enough unless you’re passing it on to a newer generation.”

    The 2024 gala was smaller and more intimate than previous installments, hosting just 160 guests with no scheduled musical performances. Other notable attendees included supermodels Karlie Kloss and Iman, *White Lotus* actors Leo Woodall and Meghann Fahy, and legendary fashion designers Donatella Versace and Stella McCartney.

    Martha Stewart, who built a billion-dollar media empire focused on lifestyle, cooking and homemaking, shared her own personal connection to the trust’s mission. Stewart recalled that scholarships paid for her higher education, and she credited early opportunities with her long-term success. “But I know today there’s a big challenge in getting a good job, a big challenge in getting a good education,” she said. “And we’re here to help those people.”

    This Associated Press philanthropy coverage is produced in partnership with The Conversation US, with support from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP retains full editorial control over all content.

  • Syrian government confirms detention of missing German journalist

    Syrian government confirms detention of missing German journalist

    BEIRUT, Lebanon — In an official confirmation this Thursday, Syria’s new transitional government has acknowledged that a German reporter who vanished earlier this year remains in state custody, ending months of uncertainty over her fate. The confirmation comes amid ongoing efforts by Syria’s post-Assad leadership to consolidate control across war-torn territory recaptured in recent military operations.

    Thirty-six-year-old Eva Maria Michelmann was last spotted on January 18, amid a government offensive to seize the northern city of Raqqa from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a press freedom watchdog, had earlier this week publicly raised alarms over Michelmann’s disappearance, noting that she was accompanied by her colleague Ahmed Polad—a Kurdish-Turkish journalist—when the pair was reportedly apprehended by advancing Syrian government troops. CPJ has since issued an urgent call for the immediate release of both reporters.

    In its official statement, Syria’s Information Ministry laid out the government’s account of the detainment: the two foreign nationals were discovered during a clearing operation by Interior Ministry forces in a Raqqa building that had previously served as a SDF security outpost. According to the statement, the pair “refused to disclose their true identities” and carried no official identification to confirm their citizenship or professional status. During initial interrogations, the ministry says the pair claimed to carry out humanitarian work on behalf of the United Nations, a claim investigators later confirmed was fabricated, with no mention of their journalistic work at the time.

    The government added that after making an attempt to escape custody, the pair was rearrested on suspicion of being illegal foreign fighters in Syrian territory. The statement confirmed that “the two were formally detained, and legal proceedings have been initiated in preparation for referral to the competent judicial authorities,” but gave no further details on the specific charges the pair may face.

    CPJ later confirmed that both reporters were on assignment for the Istanbul-based Etkin News Agency (ETHA) and Özgür TV, a broadcaster that operates across multiple European cities. Frank Jasenski, a German lawyer representing Michelmann and her family, warned earlier this week that “We assume that her health is very, very poor and we demand her immediate release.” Germany’s Federal Foreign Office confirmed last week that it has been in contact with the detained journalist, but declined to share additional details citing privacy protection regulations.

    Raqqa, which had long been held by the SDF, fell to Syrian government forces in a January offensive launched after the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in December 2024. Following the capture of the city, the new Syrian administration and the SDF reached a ceasefire agreement that laid out terms for the SDF to integrate into Syria’s national army. That ceasefire has held to date, and the integration process is proceeding gradually.

    Since overthrowing Assad’s decades-long government late last year, Syria’s new transitional leaders have faced the steep challenge of reestablishing full central authority across a country fractured by nearly 14 years of devastating civil conflict.

  • Wada investigation finds 300 Russian doping cases

    Wada investigation finds 300 Russian doping cases

    The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has announced the final results of its landmark anti-doping investigation Operation Lims, revealing that more than 300 sanctions have been issued against Russian athletes following the 2019 seizure of data from Moscow’s accredited doping laboratory. After years of global scrutiny and investigative work, the agency has formally closed the probe, confirming that 291 Russian athletes have received disciplinary action, with a total of 302 separate sanctions imposed across 22 different Olympic and non-Olympic sports.

    Among the sanctioned athletes, 107 are weightlifters – more than from any other sport – followed by 93 track and field athletes, marking these two disciplines as the most heavily affected by the state-sponsored doping scheme uncovered by investigators. Eleven athletes have been penalized multiple times for repeated anti-doping code violations, while four additional cases remain open, with final rulings still pending as of the announcement. Twenty-three independent national and international anti-doping bodies collaborated to hand down the penalties, reflecting the global coordination behind the investigation.

    Operation Lims traces its origins back to 2015, when Wada first exposed the existence of a systemic, state-orchestrated doping program operating within Russian elite sports. Following the revelation, Wada formally declared the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) non-compliant with global anti-doping rules, a status that remained in place until September 2018, when Wada’s executive committee voted to reinstate Rusada under a strict set of compliance conditions.

    That controversial reinstatement drew widespread condemnation from clean sport advocates at the time, with one prominent critic describing the decision as “the greatest treachery against clean athletes in Olympic history.” But Wada has defended the move, noting that it was a calculated strategic choice that allowed investigators to access and retrieve 24 terabytes of raw laboratory data from the Moscow facility in early 2019.

    “Put simply, Operation Lims is the most successful investigation in anti-doping history,” Wada President Witold Banka said in a statement following the conclusion of the probe. “The decision taken in 2018 to reinstate Rusada under strict conditions – despite opposition from a vocal minority of critics – was made precisely in order to get to the truth and formed part of a sophisticated investigative strategy. Without that decision, we would never have been able to obtain the critical evidence from the Moscow laboratory needed to prosecute these cases. I am pleased to say that history has shown this approach to be effective and that the entire process has been a remarkable success in ensuring fairness for athletes around the world.”

    During the review of the seized Moscow laboratory data, investigators discovered that portions of the evidence had been deliberately manipulated to cover up positive doping tests, a finding that ultimately led the Court of Arbitration for Sport to issue Russia a four-year ban from all major international sporting events in 2019. That ban expired in 2023, but Russian athletes have remained largely barred from top-level competition under their own national flag and anthem following international sporting bodies’ collective response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In recent months, however, a small number of international sports governing bodies have begun to allow individual Russian competitors to return to competition under their national flag, a shift that has reignited debate over the inclusion of sanctioned Russian athletes in global sport.

    The breakdown of sanctioned athletes across all 22 sports included in Operation Lims is as follows: aquatics (7), archery (1), athletics (93), biathlon (9.5, with the decimal accounting for a joint biathlon-cross-country skiing case), bobsleigh and skeleton (9), boxing (5), canoe (4), football (3), ice hockey (4), judo (6), kettlebell (1), modern pentathlon (2), powerlifting (9), rowing (5), sambo (1), skating (2), skiing (2.5), taekwondo (3), triathlon (1), volleyball (8), weightlifting (107) and wrestling (19).

  • Trainee driver crashes bus into River Seine

    Trainee driver crashes bus into River Seine

    On a Thursday morning just south of Paris, a startling incident unfolded when a bus under the control of a trainee driver careened off the road, collided with a parked vehicle, and ended up submerged in the Seine River. The accident took place in the commune of Juvisy-sur-Orge, located roughly 20 kilometers outside the French capital, at a point when the trainee was approaching the final stages of her hands-on practical driving training, regional transport officials confirmed.

    Initial toxicology screenings for both drugs and alcohol have returned negative results, a spokesperson for Île-de-France Mobilités, the local transport governing body, announced. With no obvious impairment identified, the root cause of the sudden loss of control remains under active investigation as of the latest updates.

    At the time of the crash, the trainee was accompanied in the bus by an experienced lead driving instructor and two additional passengers, bringing the total number of people on board to four. Immediately after the vehicle plunged into the river, a massive multi-agency emergency response was launched, drawing in more than 90 personnel including firefighters, specialist divers, and police officers. France’s national river brigade also joined the rescue effort, with teams deploying multiple rescue boats, an aerial drone, and helicopters to search the site and extract those trapped inside the submerged bus.

    All four people on the bus were successfully pulled from the water, local mayor Lamia Bensara Reda confirmed in a public statement posted to Facebook. “Everyone was quickly rescued and, thankfully, is safe and sound,” Reda said, noting that the driver lost control of the vehicle near a riverside station before it dragged the parked car into the Seine with it. Local politician Claire Lejeune echoed this update in a post to social platform X, thanking first responders for their rapid, effective intervention.

    As of 11:00 a.m. local time on the day of the incident, the wrecked bus remained visible in the river, according to reporting from French news agency Agence France-Presse. Regional authorities from the L’Esson prefecture stated that details around potential casualties are still being finalized, while the head of Île-de-France Mobilités has ordered an internal administrative investigation alongside the official probe to unpack the full circumstances of the crash.

  • Ukraine expands oil strikes on Russia as Putin proposes brief ceasefire

    Ukraine expands oil strikes on Russia as Putin proposes brief ceasefire

    In a significant escalation of cross-border strikes amid the ongoing four-year full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian drones have targeted a major Lukoil oil pumping and refining complex near Perm, a city in central Russia more than 1,500 kilometers from the active front line, triggering a massive smoke plume that was captured in dramatic social media footage.

    Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) confirmed it carried out the attack on the facility, one of Russia’s largest oil refining hubs. Visuals shared across online platforms showed towering columns of black smoke and visible flames billowing from the site, and an initial chemical emergency alert was issued for multiple districts of Perm. Local city officials later walked back the alert, framing it as a routine safety test, a move aligned with a broader pattern of Russian authorities downplaying the impact of Ukrainian strikes on domestic infrastructure.

    This Perm strike is the second attack on critical Russian energy infrastructure in the same region within a single week. Earlier this week, the SBU announced it had disabled a key strategic hub for Russia’s national oil pipeline network, also located in Perm. Further north along the Black Sea coast, multiple strikes on oil facilities in Tuapse earlier this month caused extensive oil contamination, with local residents sharing images on Telegram of oil slicks spreading across coastal waters, black petroleum puddles on local roads, and wild animals coated in sticky oil residue.

    The increasing frequency of deep-penetration drone attacks on Russian territory has become an unavoidable source of concern for the Kremlin, even as official statements continue to minimize their strategic impact. This mounting security threat has already forced tangible policy changes: on Wednesday, the Kremlin announced it would scale back its annual May 9 Victory Day military parade, the iconic holiday marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, explicitly citing “terrorist threats” originating from Ukraine.

    Later that same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a 90-minute phone call with former U.S. President Donald Trump, during which Putin put forward a proposal for a one-day ceasefire to coincide with the Victory Day holiday. Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s senior diplomatic advisor, confirmed that Trump had expressed active support for the initiative, noting that the holiday represents a shared victory over Nazi Germany between the two countries.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded cautiously to the offer, saying Kyiv would seek additional clarification from U.S. officials on the details of the proposal. “We will clarify what exactly this is about — a few hours of security for a parade in Moscow, or something more,” Zelensky said, adding that Ukraine remains committed to its original proposal for a long-term ceasefire and a lasting, sovereign peace.

    This proposed temporary truce follows a long pattern of limited, short-lived ceasefires that have been implemented since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Most of these prior truces have been tied to major holidays, restricted solely to energy infrastructure, or limited to the Black Sea grain initiative. Ukraine has repeatedly pushed for a comprehensive permanent peace agreement, while Russia has refused to enter into such talks unless Kyiv agrees to cede control of occupied sovereign Ukrainian territories to Moscow.

    During the call, Ushakov said Trump asked Putin to share his assessment of frontline conditions in Ukraine. Putin claimed to the former U.S. president that Russian forces maintain the strategic initiative and are continuing to push back Ukrainian positions. This characterization directly contradicts independent assessments from military analysts and recent on-the-ground developments.

    Over the past several months, Ukrainian forces have retaken portions of occupied Russian territory, capitalizing on technological advances in long-range strike capabilities and slowed Russian recruitment efforts that have stretched Moscow’s frontline forces thin. The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted in a recent analysis that Kyiv’s military operations are inflicting mounting casualties and operational costs on Russian troops. The ISW added that the Kremlin is likely overstating its progress to frame the conflict as nearing a Russian victory, in an effort to mitigate growing international and domestic pressure over the mounting costs of the war.

    The background of this latest strike is rooted in Russia’s ongoing regular aerial bombardment of Ukrainian civilian areas. Just on Wednesday night, a new Russian airstrike on Ukrainian population centers killed at least three civilians and injured 79 more, including one child, continuing a pattern of attacks that has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians and displaced millions more since the full-scale invasion began.

  • New ‘bluster’ from Trump? Germany faces new threat about reduced US military presence in Europe

    New ‘bluster’ from Trump? Germany faces new threat about reduced US military presence in Europe

    Fresh transatlantic friction has emerged after former President Donald Trump reignited longstanding threats to cut the United States military footprint in Germany, NATO’s leading European hub and the EU’s biggest economy. The renewed warning comes on the heels of critical remarks from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who claimed the U.S. was being publicly humiliated by Tehran amid its slow-rolling diplomatic negotiations tied to the ongoing U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran.

    Talk of reducing American troop levels in Germany is far from new. For years, Trump has openly pondered pulling back U.S. military assets from the country, and in recent months he has repeatedly lashed out at NATO for declining to back the U.S. in its two-month military campaign against Iran. Ever since Trump took office, NATO allies have braced for potential troop withdrawals, with repeated warnings that European nations would ultimately have to take full ownership of their own security, including defense support for Ukraine.

    Currently, between 80,000 and 100,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed across Europe, a number that fluctuates with ongoing operations, training exercises and rotational deployments. NATO allies widely expect that the additional U.S. troops deployed to the continent after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine would be the first to depart if drawbacks move forward. Germany hosts some of the U.S. military’s most critical European infrastructure: this includes the dual headquarters for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, Ramstein Air Base, the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center that treats wounded service members from conflicts across the Middle East and South Asia, as well as deployed American nuclear missiles.

    Ed Arnold, a European security specialist at London’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a leading defense think tank, argues that a full or large-scale withdrawal is highly unlikely, pointing out that the U.S. derives enormous strategic benefit from its German bases, which enable critical logistics and support for combat operations across the Middle East. Arnold labeled Trump’s latest threat as nothing more than political bluster, noting a long-standing gap between civilian political rhetoric and U.S. military priorities. “The issue with some of these threats is that they are not quite as galling as they were a couple of years ago,” he explained, pointing to growing European familiarity with Trump’s patterned rhetorical outbursts.

    Neither NATO nor the German federal government issued immediate official responses to Trump’s social media post. During a visit to a military training site in Munster, northern Germany on Thursday, Merz did not directly reference Trump’s comments, but obliquely pushed back by referencing longstanding transatlantic cooperation. “We work shoulder to shoulder for mutual benefit and in deep trans-Atlantic solidarity,” Merz said, adding that his government has made significant progress over the past year to bolster Germany’s own national security.

    Arnold notes that European allies are far more concerned about more immediate shifts in U.S. defense policy: the redeployment of American Patriot missile systems and stockpiled ammunition from Germany to the Middle East, as well as official notifications to Eastern NATO allies including Estonia that U.S. weapons orders will be delayed amid Washington’s new priority of supporting operations against Iran. A senior Western official, speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic matters, said there is no record of any active discussions between the U.S., Germany or other NATO allies about imminent troop reductions in Germany. The official added that Europe, and Germany in particular, have already stepped up to take greater responsibility for continental security following the release of Berlin’s new national military strategy.

    This is not the first time unexpected U.S. defense announcements have roiled transatlantic security planning. Last October, Washington confirmed it would cut between 1,500 and 3,000 troops from NATO deployments along the alliance’s border with Ukraine. The last-minute announcement unsettled Romanian officials, who host a key NATO air base on the country’s eastern flank. A full review of U.S. military posture across Europe and other global regions was launched by the Trump administration early last year, with findings originally scheduled for public release in late 2025 that have yet to be published. The U.S. has, however, given allies a formal commitment to provide advance notice of any posture changes to avoid creating dangerous security gaps at a time when Russia grows increasingly confrontational.

    Many senior European leaders hold the assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin could launch an offensive attack on another European nation by the end of the decade, particularly if Russia secures a victory in its ongoing war in Ukraine. The outbreak of the U.S.-Iran conflict has only heightened speculation that U.S. troop withdrawals from Europe could move forward, with a flurry of closed-door meetings held between Trump administration officials, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and European leaders since hostilities began on February 28. Over the past year, European NATO members and Canada have already begun adjusting to a new strategic reality, where they will bear primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense, with the U.S. shifting its NATO contribution to primarily nuclear deterrence and a smaller forward-deployed troop presence.

    Beyond the current uncertainty over troop levels, European allies have largely grown accustomed to Trump’s frequent public outbursts. In recent months, they have weathered insults labeling them as cowards and seen Trump brand NATO a “paper tiger.” Repeated threats of full withdrawal over issues like alliance defense spending targets have left allies desensitized to social media announcements hinting at potential action. The most lasting damage to NATO cohesion, many officials agree, has come from Trump’s ongoing public fixation on annexing Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO member Denmark, which has included trips to the island by Trump’s family members and senior administration officials. In September, an announced freeze on some security assistance funding for European states bordering Russia also sowed widespread confusion, after Baltic defense leaders confirmed they had received no official advance notification of the policy shift.

  • Zelenskyy says he’s seeking details of Putin’s May 9 ceasefire proposal

    Zelenskyy says he’s seeking details of Putin’s May 9 ceasefire proposal

    Diplomatic developments have intersected with continuing frontline violence in Ukraine this week, after Russian President Vladimir Putin floated a short-term ceasefire proposal to former U.S. President Donald Trump during a Wednesday phone call, drawing a cautious request for details from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

    According to the Kremlin, Putin suggested the ceasefire would align with Russia’s May 9 Victory Day, the national holiday marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. While senior Putin aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed the ceasefire was discussed during the call, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov clarified Thursday that no final agreement or concrete terms have been finalized, with all final decisions remaining with Putin.

    In a public Telegram post Thursday, Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian diplomatic representatives had been ordered to reach out to Trump’s team to pin down the specifics of the proposal. The Ukrainian leader cast doubt on the plan’s purpose, suggesting it could merely be a temporary security measure for a Moscow parade rather than a meaningful step toward de-escalation, and reiterated Ukraine’s preference for a far longer ceasefire to reduce civilian harm.

    Parallel to these diplomatic negotiations, active hostilities have continued unabated across the region. Overnight Russian airstrikes targeted two major Ukrainian cities: in the central city of Dnipro, a drone strike killed one civilian and injured five others, damaging a local shop, residential apartment blocks and parked vehicles, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha confirmed. In the southern Black Sea port of Odesa, waves of Russian drone strikes left 20 people wounded. Though Ukrainian air defense forces intercepted a large share of the incoming drones, falling debris and direct hits damaged civilian sites including residential buildings, a hotel, a kindergarten and an administrative building, sparking multiple fires that emergency crews have since contained.

    For a second consecutive day, Ukraine has carried out retaliatory drone strikes on industrial infrastructure deep inside Russian territory. A senior Ukrainian security official confirmed Thursday that the country’s Security Service (SBU) targeted the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez oil refinery in Perm, a region in the Ural Mountains more than 1,500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, disrupting operations at the facility. Russian regional governor Dmitry Makhonin acknowledged an industrial site was hit but downplayed damage and reported no casualties. Farther west, in the Krasnodar region, authorities said a two-day fire at the Tuapse Black Sea oil refinery—ignited by a Ukrainian drone strike—has been extinguished, though crude oil products spilled onto local city streets during the blaze.

    Ukraine’s Navy also announced a separate overnight strike in the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea and Sea of Azov adjacent to the 2018 Crimean Bridge linking illegally annexed Crimea to mainland Russia. The service said sea drones damaged two Russian vessels: a patrol boat named *Sobol* and a smaller craft named *Grachonok*.

    In a separate diplomatic win for Kyiv, a vessel accused of carrying grain stolen by Russia from occupied Ukrainian territories departed Israel’s Haifa Port early Thursday without unloading its cargo, after a week of escalating tension between the two countries. The ship had been anchored off Haifa for several days, but Israel’s largest grain import firm refused to accept the shipment over its disputed origin, the Israel Grain Importers Association confirmed, forcing the Russian supplier to seek an alternative port to unload.

    Zelenskyy had threatened to impose sanctions on Israel earlier this week if the vessel offloaded the stolen grain, and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar noted the country’s tax authority had launched a formal investigation into the shipment. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha hailed the outcome, saying it proved the effectiveness of Kyiv’s legal and diplomatic efforts to block the trade of stolen Ukrainian agricultural goods.