标签： Europe

BERLIN – The Pentagon’s recent announcement that it will withdraw roughly 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany over the next 6 to 12 months has been met with measured calm from German defense leadership, even as the move signals a fresh erosion of trust between Washington and its key European allies amid a series of escalating tensions under the second Trump administration.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius framed the drawdown as a long-expected development, echoing years of warnings from the White House that it would reduce U.S. military commitments in Europe. In comments Saturday to Germany’s national news agency dpa, Pistorius emphasized that the decades-long U.S. military presence on German soil has long served mutual strategic interests for both nations. “The presence of American soldiers in Europe, and especially in Germany, is in our interest and in the interest of the U.S.,” Pistorius said. He added that European NATO members have already acknowledged and acted on the need to take greater ownership of regional collective defense, with Germany ramping up military spending, accelerating weapons procurement, and expanding defense infrastructure in recent years to meet shifting security demands.

The 5,000-troop pullout accounts for approximately 14% — or one-seventh — of the 36,000 U.S. service members currently stationed in Germany. While the drawdown is sizable enough to shift the trans-Atlantic security dynamic, it is not viewed as a critical cut to U.S. force posture. Pentagon officials have so far released no detailed information about which units, facilities, or operations will be affected by the withdrawal. Across the entire European theater, the U.S. normally maintains between 80,000 and 100,000 military personnel, a number that rose after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. European allies have anticipated a post-escalation drawdown of this temporary reinforcement for more than a year.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in an official statement that the decision came after a comprehensive review of U.S. force positioning across Europe, and was made to align with current theater requirements and on-the-ground security conditions. Germany hosts some of the most critical U.S. military infrastructure outside of North America, including the joint headquarters for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, Ramstein Air Base — a key logistics and command hub for operations across the Middle East and Africa — the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center that treated thousands of casualties from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and deployed U.S. nuclear weapons.

NATO spokesperson Allison Hart noted Saturday in a post on X that the alliance is collaborating with U.S. officials to work through the details of the force posture adjustment. “This adjustment underscores the need for Europe to continue to invest more in defense and take on a greater share of the responsibility for our shared security,” Hart said, adding that allies have made steady progress toward the alliance’s new target of each member devoting 5% of gross domestic product to defense spending.

Despite the measured official response from Berlin and NATO, the withdrawal marks a clear new low in U.S.-German relations and ties between Washington and European allies more broadly. For years, Trump has publicly floated the idea of cutting U.S. troop numbers in Germany, and has repeatedly attacked NATO for refusing to back U.S. policy in the conflict with Iran that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on the country in late February. The president has also openly expressed frustration that NATO allies have declined to join his anti-Iran campaign, and has launched verbal attacks on multiple top European leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Just last week, Merz publicly criticized U.S. strategy in Iran, saying Washington is being “humiliated” by the Iranian leadership and has no clear policy for the region. The trans-Atlantic rift has spilled over into trade as well: Trump recently accused the European Union of failing to comply with its existing trade agreement with the U.S., and announced plans next week to raise tariffs on all EU-produced cars and trucks to 25%. The new tariffs would hit Germany particularly hard, as the country’s economy relies heavily on automotive exports to the U.S. At least one senior EU lawmaker has already labeled the planned tariff hike “unacceptable,” accusing Trump of breaking yet another major U.S. trade commitment.

NATO allies have been preparing for a U.S. troop drawdown in Europe since Trump began his second term, after repeated warnings from Washington that Europe will need to take full responsibility for its own security in the coming years — including security support for Ukraine. The reporting for this article was contributed by Sarah Burrows from London, with additional reporting from Jamey Keaten in Lyon, France.

LONDON – In the wake of a terror-linked stabbing attack that injured two Jewish men in a London neighborhood with a large Jewish population, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for stricter enforcement against inflammatory rhetoric at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, acknowledging that the rise in antisemitic violence across the country has put British Jewish communities on high alert. The incident, which took place on Wednesday in Golders Green – a longstanding hub of British Jewish life – left two men hospitalized, and a 45-year-old suspect has already been charged with attempted murder. London’s Metropolitan Police have formally classified the attack as an act of terrorism, marking the latest in a growing string of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish people and sites across the capital, including recent arson attempts at local synagogues.

Speaking to the BBC on Saturday, Starmer emphasized that while the UK upholds the fundamental right to peaceful protest, authorities must not tolerate language that incites violence and hatred. He specifically called out the chant “globalize the intifada” – a phrase that translates to “globalize the uprising” – as an example of rhetoric that demands far tougher legal action. Starmer also noted that repeated large-scale pro-Palestinian marches have created a cumulative effect that has contributed to the sharp spike in antisemitic incidents recorded across the nation. When pressed on whether future protests could be restricted, the prime minister did not rule out formal bans for demonstrations that cross the line from peaceful protest to hate speech and intimidation.

The severity of the current threat to British Jews was underscored by the UK’s most senior law enforcement official, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley, who warned Friday that Jewish communities are now facing the most sustained and widespread security challenge in modern British history. Rowley blamed the proliferation of antisemitic content on social media platforms for normalizing anti-Jewish hatred in mainstream public discourse, noting that Jewish people have become a shared target for almost every extremist faction operating in the UK today. “The ghastly fact is that Jews are on everybody’s list, all of those hateful groups – whether you’re extreme right, whether you’re extreme left, whether you’re Islamist terrorist, whether you’re right-wing terrorist, and some hostile states as well now with some sort of Iranian-related threats,” Rowley told The Times. “There’s a ghastly Venn diagram that they’re at the middle of.”

Following Wednesday’s stabbing attack, UK authorities raised the country’s official terror threat level from “substantial” to “severe” – the second-highest ranking on the government’s five-point threat scale. A “severe” classification indicates that intelligence agencies assess a terrorist attack to be highly likely within the next six months. Government officials clarified that the adjustment was not triggered solely by the Golders Green incident, but reflects a broader increase in risk from both Islamist and far-right extremist actors, most of whom are individuals or small independent groups based within the UK.

Data from the Community Security Trust, a charity that monitors antisemitism and protects Jewish communities across the UK, confirms that hate incidents have skyrocketed since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel and the subsequent outbreak of war in Gaza. The organization recorded 3,700 antisemitic incidents nationwide in 2025, a more than 120% increase from the 1,662 incidents recorded in 2022 before the current conflict began.

The Pentagon officially confirmed Friday that approximately 5,000 United States military personnel will be pulled out of Germany over the next six to 12 months, carrying out a threat issued by President Donald Trump amid a sharp public clash with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over Washington’s ongoing war with Iran.

The dispute that triggered this latest troop withdrawal plan erupted earlier this week, after Merz publicly stated that U.S. leadership had been “humiliated” by Iran’s government and harshly criticized the Biden administration’s lack of a clear strategic framework for the conflict. Trump picked up on the criticism quickly, moving to follow through on his long-stated goal of shrinking the U.S. military footprint in the European NATO ally.

In an official statement, Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell framed the troop drawdown as the outcome of a comprehensive review of the Defense Department’s force posture across Europe, noting the decision aligns with current theater operational requirements and on-the-ground security conditions. Germany currently hosts a sprawling network of critical U.S. military infrastructure, including the joint headquarters for U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command, Ramstein Air Base — a key logistics and transport hub for U.S. operations across Europe, Africa and the Middle East — and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, which for decades has treated combat casualties from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. The country also hosts deployed U.S. nuclear missiles as part of NATO’s collective deterrence framework.

The 5,000 troops scheduled for withdrawal make up roughly 14% of the 36,000 active-duty U.S. service members currently stationed across Germany. Nico Lange, a senior fellow at the Center of European Policy Analysis, told the Associated Press earlier this week that most of the U.S. troops deployed to Germany primarily serve core American strategic interests, including the global projection of U.S. military power, rather than focused support for Germany’s territorial defense.

As President Trump boarded Air Force One following an economic policy rally in Ocala, Florida Friday, he declined to answer reporter questions about the withdrawal decision. This is not the first time Trump has advanced a plan to cut U.S. troop numbers in Germany: during his first term, he proposed pulling roughly 9,500 troops from the then-garrison of 34,500 U.S. personnel, but never initiated the drawdown process. Shortly after taking office in 2021, former Democratic President Joe Biden formally canceled the planned withdrawal.

The unpredictable U.S. leader has publicly debated reducing the American military presence in Germany for years, and has repeatedly criticized NATO for declining to join the U.S.-led war against Iran, which began February 28 with coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iranian targets. In a social media post Wednesday, Trump confirmed the administration was reviewing potential troop reductions and would announce a final decision imminently. The next day, he doubled down on his criticism of Merz, posting that the German chancellor should focus more on ending the Russia-Ukraine war and addressing domestic economic problems in Germany instead of commenting on U.S. policy toward Iran.

NATO allies across Europe have been preparing for a potential U.S. troop drawdown since Trump began his second term, after the administration repeatedly signaled that Europe would need to take full responsibility for its own collective security going forward, including security support for Ukraine. Overall, the U.S. maintains a rotating troop presence of between 80,000 and 100,000 personnel across Europe, and allies have anticipated for more than a year that troops deployed to Eastern Europe after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine would be the first to be repositioned or withdrawn.

Ed Arnold, a European security expert at the London-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), explained that many European capitals are more concerned about potential U.S. plans to reposition Patriot missile defense systems and stockpiled ammunition from Germany to the Middle East to support the Iran war than the overall troop drawdown itself. The U.S. already confirmed a troop reduction on NATO’s eastern border with Ukraine back in October, cutting between 1,500 and 3,000 troops on short notice — a move that sparked unease in NATO member Romania, which hosts a key NATO air base on the Black Sea.

On France’s annual Labour Day public holiday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu stepped into a small village bakery in the central French community of Saint-Julien-Chapteuil, smiled for assembled press cameras, and completed a purchase of at least four baguettes, before stopping at a neighboring florist to pick up a bouquet of flowers. What was intended as a show of support for small independent food and flower businesses quickly escalated into a fresh public dispute with major French labor unions, which have fiercely opposed the government’s push to carve out a permanent exception to the country’s mandatory Labour Day rest rule for bakeries and florists.

Current French labor law strictly limits which businesses can operate on the 1 May public holiday, with only core essential services such as hospitals and hotels granted legal permission to open, requiring any working staff to receive double their standard daily wages. The regulatory status of small-scale bakeries and flower shops has long remained ambiguous in this framework, creating confusion for business owners that the Macron administration is seeking to resolve through new legislation.

The controversial proposal, introduced to parliament earlier this month, would formally exempt independent bakeries and florists from the mandatory rest requirement, on the condition that any employee working on the holiday provides written confirmation of voluntary participation and receives double pay for their shift. Government officials have framed the change as a common-sense adjustment, arguing that these local small businesses are “indispensable to the continuity of social life” and that the exemption would support independent operators who rely on the holiday foot traffic for revenue.

Unions have pushed back hard against the plan, warning that the policy creates a dangerous opening for employers to pressure vulnerable workers into agreeing to work on a holiday that is legally protected for rest. Marylise Léon, General Secretary of France’s largest union, dismissed Lecornu’s public bakery visit as an unnecessary political stunt. “Politicians going to a bakery, I think that’s part of a political spectacle that we don’t need today,” Léon said. “We need to show what the reality of a bakery worker is like.” Unions argue that the formalization of this exemption sets a worrying precedent, pointing to a pattern where incremental carve-outs to protected labor rights eventually erode core rules entirely. In a joint statement released in April, unions warned: “social history shows us that each time a principle is undermined, exemptions gradually increase until they become the rule”, with many leaders fearing the change could eventually lead to widespread rollbacks of mandatory rest for all public holidays across France.

The dispute deepened after it emerged that Lecornu had personally intervened to waive a heavy fine issued to a baker who opened his shop on Labour Day earlier this year. According to reports from BFMTV and Europe1, the prime minister spoke by phone with the baker, identified only as Eric, who had been cited by labor inspectors for operating on the holiday and faced a total fine of €5,250 — €750 for each of his seven employees working that day. Lecornu reportedly reassured Eric that he would not be required to pay the penalty, a move that unions have decried as a politically motivated bypassing of existing labor regulations.

The government’s bill now moves to parliamentary debate for approval, with the outcome likely to shape both future labor policy and the already tense relationship between the Macron administration and France’s powerful labor movement in the coming months.

In a sudden and provocative move that threatens to upend already fragile trade relations between the United States and the European Union, former and current U.S. President Donald Trump revealed Friday plans to raise import tariffs on European-manufactured passenger cars and commercial trucks to 25 percent, up from the 15 percent rate set by a 2025 bilateral agreement.

Sharing the announcement via his Truth Social platform, Trump accused Brussels of failing to uphold its end of the 2025 trade deal negotiated at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland last July, but offered no specific evidence or details to back up the claim of non-compliance. “I am pleased to announce that… next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks,” Trump wrote in the post.

The planned tariff increase marks a dramatic escalation of simmering trade tensions between Washington and Brussels. Negotiations to solidify last summer’s framework agreement have been deadlocked for months over disagreements on U.S. tariff adjustments for steel and aluminum imports, with leading EU economies Germany and France repeatedly rejecting Washington’s proposals to widen tariff changes across dozens of product categories.

For the European bloc, the automotive sector is one of its most economically critical export industries, making Trump’s target a particularly calculated and sensitive choice. The 2025 framework agreement, which capped most European industrial goods tariffs at 15 percent, originally served as a compromise that spared the EU from the far harsher 30 percent tariffs Trump threatened to impose during his April “Liberation Day” tariff wave. In exchange for the lower rate, the bloc agreed to increase direct investment in the U.S. and implement regulatory changes designed to boost American exports to European markets.

Transatlantic relations faced additional disruption earlier this year after Trump made public threats to annex Greenland, an autonomous self-governing territory of Denmark. In response, the European Parliament suspended its formal approval of the trade deal in January, eventually adding a new clause that allows for full suspension of the agreement if the Trump administration is found to have undermined deal objectives, discriminated against EU businesses, threatened member state territorial integrity, or engaged in economic coercion. The deal ultimately won parliamentary approval in March after the initial dispute cooled.

Alongside announcing the tariff hike, Trump used the post to pressure European automakers to relocate their production facilities to the United States, noting that any vehicles built at U.S. factories would face no import tariffs. He claimed the U.S. is currently seeing record-breaking levels of new investment in domestic automotive manufacturing, saying billions of dollars are flowing into new and expanded plants across the country. “There has never been anything like what is happening in America today,” he added.

Notably, the “Liberation Day” broad tariffs Trump imposed earlier this year under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were later ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, legal experts confirm that the automotive tariffs in question follow a separate statutory process, so they are not affected by the high court’s ruling, leaving the planned 25 percent increase on solid legal footing for the administration.

The announcement has already sent ripples through global automotive and financial markets, with analysts warning that higher tariffs could raise vehicle prices for U.S. consumers, disrupt cross-border supply chains, and trigger retaliatory trade measures from Brussels that would further harm transatlantic economic cooperation.

WASHINGTON — In an unexpected announcement that has sent ripples through global markets already grappling with multiple crises, former and returning U.S. President Donald Trump revealed Friday that he will raise import tariffs on European-manufactured cars and trucks to 25% starting next week. The policy shift arrives at a moment of unprecedented vulnerability for the global economy, threatening to exacerbate already mounting pressures on growth and inflation.