What does NATO's 5% spending deal really mean?
Article content
Only a handful of allies — such as Poland and the Baltic states — are coming close to five percent at the moment, with the United States itself under 3.4 percent in 2024.
NATO's 32 nations have thrashed out a compromise deal to dedicate 3.5 percent to core military needs by 2035, and 1.5 percent to broader 'defence-related' areas such as cybersecurity and infrastructure.
That gives Trump the win he craves while granting cash-strapped European governments some wiggle room.
Nevertheless, it is still a major ask for many governments and will add hundreds of billions to budgets in the coming years.
3.5 percent on what?
The bulk of the spending is still required to go on NATO's key focus area: raw military might.
Alliance members last month signed up to new targets for all the hardware they need to face off against the threat from Russia.
The exact details are secret but it will involve the biggest ramp-up in capabilities since the Cold War.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
35 minutes ago
- CTV News
Canada's five per cent GDP on defence will cost around $151 billion per year until 2029
Watch CTV News' Renee Rodgers breaks down some of the costs included in the newly-announced NATO defence budget.
Winnipeg Free Press
40 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump representative Kari Lake on Voice of America's fate: ‘Scrap the whole thing and start over'
The Trump administration's choice to oversee government-run news outlets like Voice of America told a congressional committee on Wednesday that 'it's best to just scrap the whole thing and start over.' Kari Lake, the former Arizona newscaster turned Republican politician, testified that the U.S. Agency for Global Media is 'rotten to the core' and that any salvageable parts should be put under the control of the U.S. State Department. Lake appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee days after layoff notices were sent to hundreds of employees at the agency and Voice of America, cutting its staff by 85%. With politicians speaking over and around each other, the hearing amounted to a debate on what role journalism should have in spreading American influence abroad. Lake said she is following President Donald Trump's directive to cut the dozens of outlets to the core, with most already shut down or sharply curtailed. She characterized many broadcasts as anti-American or promoting liberal bias, pointing to efforts by Chinese government representatives in the U.S. to influence Mandarin-language content on Radio Free Asia. Trump backs up Lake via social media post The agency is investigating threatening phone calls to a member of Congress from inside Voice of America, Lake said, hinting — but not saying outright — that the target was a Republican. Trump backed her up via a Truth Social post on Wednesday: 'Why would a Republican want Democrat 'mouthpiece' Voice of America (VOA) to continue? It's a TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER — No Republican should vote for its survival. KILL IT!' A congressionally-mandated firewall 'makes it impossible for agency management to prevent biased, anti-American or rogue reporting,' Lake said. The 'firewall' she refers to has been in place since 1994, prohibiting any interference by a U.S. government official in the independent reporting of news. Since Voice of America's inception in World War II, the outlets have operated under the theory that objective news reports delivered to citizens whose own governments resist such freedoms is a 'soft power' way to promote the nation's interests. 'I feel like I am suffering through a propaganda war through your testimony,' said U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Pennsylvania Democrat. 'For those of you who think this is about reform, it's not. It's about shutting down media.' Democrats pointed to reports about Russia and China stepping up their own media efforts to fill the void left by stilled American voices. 'Reliable news is no longer accessible for millions of people around the world,' said U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo, a Rhode Island Democrat. 'If our adversaries are cheering this decision, why would we do that?' Employees at Radio Farda, a Persian-language branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that broadcasts in Iran, were hurriedly called back into work at the outset of the Israel-Iran war, only for most of them to be laid off less than a week later. Democrats characterized that as a missed opportunity to speak to Iranian citizens at a time when their government was weak. But Lake said a few employees were able to translate Trump's speech announcing the U.S. bombing on Saturday into Farsi for the radio outlet. Jobs for freelance journalists? 'We don't need to have massive newsrooms,' Lake said. U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, a Florida Republican, said that 'a lot of journalists are freelance. That's something we should look into.' Some Democrats personally attacked Lake as unreliable, particularly a fellow Arizona resident, Rep. Greg Stanton, who pointed to false statements Lake had made about her own failed bids to get elected as governor and senator of that state. 'The American people cannot believe a word you say,' Stanton said. Lake said Stanton was spouting 'complete insanity.' 'I wish I could yield back the last five minutes of my life,' she said. Meanwhile, several Republicans saluted Lake for trying to reform the agencies. The outlets' futures remain uncertain. There are a handful of court cases aimed at restoring funding and ordering a resumption of services. But the longer many remain off the air, the easier it is for followers to get into new habits of consuming news. ___ David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at and
Globe and Mail
an hour ago
- Globe and Mail
Democrats wanting to impeach Trump for Iran attack show just how out of touch their party is
U.S. Air Force B2 bombers had barely left Iranian airspace last week before Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called for Donald Trump's impeachment for 'impulsively' risking 'a war that may ensnare us for generations.' Setting aside the question of whether the U.S. President's move to authorize attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities could be construed as an impeachable offence – former president Barack Obama did not seek congressional approval before bombing Libya in 2011 either, and nobody tried to impeach him for it – Republican majorities in both houses of Congress would block any attempt to launch impeachment proceedings in the first place. So would many of AOC's fellow Democrats, who, unlike her, represent competitive districts. Globe editorial: Donald Trump and the art of nuclear diplomacy Indeed, that is exactly what happened on Tuesday, when Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green sought to bring forward a motion to impeach Mr. Trump for 'unconstitutionally usurping Congress's power to declare war.' More than half of the Democrats in the House of Representatives – 128 in all – joined Republicans to block the proposal. They knew that another impeachment sideshow is the last thing most voters are looking for right now. Unfortunately for them, most of their party's leading public figures continue to push a left-wing populist agenda that appeals to the activist base, but which alienates average voters in the very states and districts Democrats need to win to regain control of Congress in 2026 and the White House in 2028. Earlier this year, AOC and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders launched their Fighting Oligarchy Tour, to 'take on the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.' But Democrats are heading for serial defeat if they embrace the AOC-Sanders message in future election campaigns. Corporations and billionaires may wield too much power. But the solutions pitched by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Sanders – more government, more taxes, more regulation, more redistribution – are downright scary to most Americans. They have seen the dystopia that formula has created in one-party Democrat states such as California and New York. 'In much of San Francisco, you can't walk 20 feet without seeing a multicoloured sign declaring that Black Lives Matter, Kindness is Everything and No Human Being is Illegal,' write Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson in their book, Abundance. 'Those signs sit in yards zoned for single families, in communities that organize against efforts to add new homes that would bring those values closer to reality. San Francisco's Black population has fallen in every Census count since 1970. Poorer families – disproportionately non-white and immigrant – are pushed into long commutes, overcrowded housing and street homelessness.' Mr. Klein and Mr. Thompson argue that affordability crises facing Californians and New Yorkers – which are the worst in the country – are not the result of excessive corporate power or insufficient taxation but rather the high-tax, high-regulation policies of Democratic state and city governments. U.S. strikes set back Iran's nuclear program by only a few months, intelligence report says In a recent New York Times column, Mr. Klein noted that it costs four times more per square-foot to build subsidized housing in California than it does to build non-subsidized housing in Texas, mainly due to the 'avalanche' of environmental and social requirements faced by California developers, all imposed in the name of liberal progressivism. The book by Mr. Klein and Mr. Thompson has generated a backlash among the progressive Democratic left. And its critique of the California model will not help the state's Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, as he seeks to woo voters nationally and launch a 2028 presidential bid. Mr. Klein argues that 'anti-corporate populism' is not helping the Democratic Party win over mainstream American voters. Democrats are 'struggling,' he insists, because 'they fail to solve problems.' Yet, the Democratic base continues to move further to the left by the day. The winner of Tuesday's Democratic mayoral primary in New York City, 33-year-old state assemblyman and democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, is promising free bus rides, rent freezes and government-owned grocery stores, paid for with a US$10-billion tax increase on businesses and wealthy New Yorkers. He handily beat former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who had been endorsed by former president Bill Clinton and ex-mayor Michael Bloomberg. Granted, Mr. Cuomo – who resigned as governor in 2021 amid an onslaught of sexual harassment allegations – had more baggage than an Airbus 350. But what really sank his mayoral bid was the online war waged against him by left-wing activists backing Mr. Mamdani. The Democratic nominee will now face off in November against incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who might be vulnerable (he faced corruption charges until the Trump administration intervened to have them dropped) were it not for Mr. Mamdani's strident anti-Israel views and high-tax platform. New York City counts more Jews than any other urban centre except Tel Aviv, and the most millionaires of any U.S. city. For now, Mr. Mamdani is a political asset – for Mr. Trump and other Republicans.
