European taxpayers will want 'to see return' on 5% NATO spending increase, analyst says
05:35
25/06/2025
Bezos' Venice wedding party moved to isolated area on security concerns
Europe
25/06/2025
Trump claims 'win' as NATO agrees massive spending hike
Europe
25/06/2025
Russian strikes kill at least 26, injure over 200 in Dnipro
Europe
24/06/2025
World 'hems Donald Trump in': Analyst predicts US president will stand by Article 5
Europe
24/06/2025
Georgia jails top opposition figures as authorities ramp up crackdown
Europe
24/06/2025
Russian strikes kill 19 in Ukraine region as Zelenskyy seeks more Western help
Europe
24/06/2025
Spain says NATO 5% spending target is 'unreasonable'
Europe
24/06/2025
Iran-Israel conflict: NATO countries 'setting out parameters and objectives' ahead of summit
Middle East
24/06/2025
Macron and Støre denounce 'illegal' US strikes on Iran, call for 'diplomatic solution'
Europe
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LeMonde
2 hours ago
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Judge orders Trump admin to release billions in EV charging funds
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars allocated for the construction of electric vehicle charging stations in over a dozen US states. In a ruling Tuesday, June 25, US District Judge Tana Lin granted a preliminary injunction to require distribution of funds for National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) development, which was allotted $5 billion for use from 2022 to 2026. Signed into law by then-president Joe Biden in 2021, the NEVI program was defunded by the Trump administration's Department of Transportation in February, axing expected funding for 16 states and the District of Columbia. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called climate change a "hoax," abandoned electric vehicle booster programs and campaigned to drill for oil extensively. Trump has also blocked California's plan to ban internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035. Seventeen attorneys general sued the Trump administration to unfreeze funds in May, led by California, the state with the largest number of electric vehicles. "It is no secret that the Trump Administration is beholden to the fossil fuel agenda," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, adding legal programs can't be dismantled "just so that the President's Big Oil friends can continue basking in record-breaking profits." The Democrat praised Lin's order and said California "looks forward to continuing to vigorously defend itself from this executive branch overreach." In responding to the ruling, a Department of Transportation spokesperson on Wednesday blasted the Biden-era NEVI program as a "disaster" and said Lin was "another liberal judicial activist making nonsensical rulings from the bench because they hate President Trump." It was not clear whether the administration intends to appeal the ruling. "While we assess our legal options, the order does not stop our ongoing work to reform the program," the spokesperson added. The Trump administration has until July 2 to appeal or release funds under Lin's order, which applies to Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.
LeMonde
3 hours ago
- LeMonde
Zelensky urges 'unity' with Trump and a trial for 'war criminal' Putin
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, June 25, said close ties between Europe and the United States under Donald Trump were key to ensuring Kyiv defeated the Russian invasion, as he urged a trial for President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky signed an accord with the Council of Europe to set up a special tribunal to try top officials over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as he made his first visit since the start of the conflict to the France-based rights body. But after a face-to-face meeting with Trump earlier the day at the NATO summit in The Hague, Zelensky made an impassioned call for close ties between Europe and the US president. "We need a strong connection with him (Trump)," Zelensky, who had a public spat with the American leader in the Oval Office earlier this year, told the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. "We need unity between Europe and the United States and we will prevail," Zelensky said, adding: "We need unity in Europe first of all." The special tribunal would prosecute the "crime of aggression" in the full-scale invasion, which Russia launched in February 2022, and could, in theory, try senior figures up to Putin. "We need to show clearly aggression leads to punishment and we must make it happen together, all of Europe," Zelensky continued after signing the accord with Council of Europe secretary general Alain Berset. "There is still a long way to go. Justice takes time but it must happen," he added, saying the accord is a "real chance to bring justice for the crime of aggression." Help us improve Le Monde in English Dear reader, We'd love to hear your thoughts on Le Monde in English! Take this quick survey to help us improve it for you. "It will take strong political and legal courage to make sure every Russian war criminal faces justice, including Putin," Zelensky said. 'No exceptions' Berset said the next step to set up the tribunal, which the Council of Europe hopes could start work next year, would be an enlarged agreement to "allow the widest possible number of countries to join, to support, and to help manage the tribunal." It has not yet been decided where the tribunal would be based but Zelensky said The Hague would be "perfect." "International law must apply to all, with no exceptions and no double standards," said Berset. This is the first time such a tribunal has been set up under the aegis of the Council of Europe, the continent's top rights body. The 46-member Council of Europe is not part of the EU and members include key non-EU European states such as Turkey, the UK and Ukraine. Russia was expelled in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine and its supporters want to see justice served for Russia's all-out invasion in 2022 and European foreign ministers endorsed the creation of the tribunal in a meeting in Lviv in western Ukraine on May 9. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has already issued arrest warrants for Putin over the abduction of Ukrainian children and four of his top commanders for targeting civilians. But the ICC does not have the jurisdiction to prosecute Russia for the more fundamental decision to launch the invasion – otherwise known as the "crime of aggression." According to the Council of Europe, the tribunal will be set up within the framework of the body "with the mandate to prosecute senior leaders for the crime of aggression against Ukraine." It said the tribunal "fills the gap" created by the "jurisdictional limitations" of the ICC.
LeMonde
4 hours ago
- LeMonde
The anxiety of Ukrainians in the Sumy region as the Russian army advances: 'We live day by day, but for now, we don't want to leave'
Somber police officers donned their bulletproof vests on Wednesday, June 18, as one started the armored minivan in the small courtyard of an apartment building in Sumy, the capital of the Ukrainian region of the same name, which borders Russia. That day's mission was to evacuate a family with two children from the small village of Bilopillia, located about 10 kilometers from the Russian border. In recent weeks, the area had become increasingly dangerous as Russian artillery and FPV (first-person view, or remotely piloted) drones began to strike it. Bilopillia was just one of dozens of villages where residents were advised to evacuate after the Russian army launched an offensive to the North of the Sumy region. "The Russians are flying their FPV drones over the town," said Viktoriia Kiritchenko, 46, who came from her village of Vorozhba with her son, Dmytro, after their house was partially damaged by the explosion of a powerful guided aerial bomb. "Some people continue living in these villages, even after their homes have been hit," said Alyona Stavitsakaya, a member of the White Angels, a police force in charge of evacuations. "Over time, the sense of danger fades and people get used to it." Under threat, Sumy is holding its breath as Russian forces are now only about 20 kilometers from the city center, following the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Russian region of Kursk. In recent weeks, according to DeepState, a military analysis website close to the Ukrainian army in Kyiv, Kremlin forces have managed to take control of 200 square kilometers on the Ukrainian side of the border. The front line is drawing closer, and now the echoes of artillery can be heard even in the center of Sumy. Provocative − and evidently confident in his army's abilities − the Russian president also declared on June 20 that he "had not ruled out" capturing the city of Sumy.
