What comes after the American-led world order
As the sun was setting on the 20th century, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright proudly declared the United States to be the 'indispensable nation,' essential to protecting world order. Just over a decade later, her successor Hillary Clinton doubled down, proclaiming a 'new American Moment' in which 'our global leadership is essential.'
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a day ago
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Hillary Clinton says she's not sure if America will remain the world's top superpower
Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton answering questions during a conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 8, 2025. (John Cole/Capital-Star) Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a guest appearance in Philadelphia on Sunday morning to participate in a Q&A session at America in One Room/Pennsylvania. Attendees were told that a special guest would be speaking to them, but the crowd was kept in the dark until Clinton took the stage. For 30 minutes, she responded to questions on a variety of foreign affairs topics at the gathering aimed at encouraging civic engagement and finding solutions to the nation's most pressing challenges. Clinton told the room that she's 'intrigued' and 'excited' by what they were doing. '(I'm) hopeful that it can serve as a model for a lot of the tough issues we face,' Clinton said. Once the Q&A began, one particular question gave her pause: Is the United States 'really the top superpower in the world, or are we just the top consumers?' 'I think we still are (the top superpower), but I'm not sure we will remain,' Clinton said. 'Because we are giving away our power in ways that I think are very damaging to our leadership position in the world.' The former first lady, who served as U.S. secretary of state during President Barack Obama's first term, was the Democratic Party's nominee for president in 2016, losing to Republican Donald Trump. She didn't mention President Trump by name, but appeared to criticize his administration's foreign policy. 'I want us to remain the leading superpower. I want us to remain the leading example of a society that can work together, achieve things of importance together, get along with each other across partisan lines,' Clinton said. 'And I know we're in a big battle in our country right now, because other people have a very different view, a view of dominance and a view of power for the sake of power.' Clinton argued that if the United States cedes to someone else as the 'superpower' of the world, it would create a vacuum filled by bad actors and ultimately, lead to a world that is less safe, less fair, and less prosperous. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE However, she said she also fears if the United States no longer leads it could also create spheres of influence for other countries to step into and become dominant. 'You know, there are some people, frankly, who advocate let China control Asia, let Russia control Europe. We'll just stay over here,' Clinton said. 'That was exactly what was said in the 1930s and it did not work out very well.' 'So, I think we have to learn from history,' she added. 'Not be imprisoned by it, but learn from it.' When responding to questions about America's foreign policy in Asia, Clinton said that she believes the United States needs to make it clear to China that if they were to invade Taiwan, it would be crossing a red line. 'We don't want a conflict. That would be the last thing we want,' Clinton said. 'But Taiwan is one of those lines.' Without saying Trump by name, Clinton also criticized the current administration, saying she believes that the United States is not pursuing what she believes is the smartest strategy with Taiwan. She also blasted Trump's tariff policies with China. On May 12, Trump announced that he lowered the 145% tariffs on Chinese goods to 30% for 90 days in an effort to allow for trade talks, while China also reduced its taxes on U.S. products from 125% to 10%, according to the Associated Press. 'We are crippling our economy,' Clinton said. 'We are affecting their economy, maybe not as much as it will eventually affect our economy.' Clinton referenced California's Long Beach port being 'largely empty' right now as a sign that the impact of the tariffs will be felt over the next few months. 'They haven't quite kicked in yet, so we are hurting ourselves economically,' she said. Many Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, have been vocal against the tariffs that Trump has put in place. However, Republicans, including Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, believe the tariffs will benefit American manufacturing. When addressing a question about whether or not the United States needs to rethink the balance between defense spending and investing in diplomacy, Clinton said the country needs both. The Trump administration's effort to slash government spending via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led to programs like USAID being cut, which has resulted in pushback from Democratic lawmakers. She also referenced the current war in Ukraine. 'The Russian invasion of Ukraine, a totally aggressive, unprovoked effort to conquer and take over another country, is absolutely against our interests,' Clinton said. 'It's against our interests because we do not want to see aggression rewarded, because you don't know where it will stop, and you don't know who will come after you, or people that you're connected with or that you're invested in.' During the 2024 presidential election, Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party's nominee, differed on the way they believe the United States should handle the war in Ukraine. Trump campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine on 'day one,' if elected, although an agreement to end the conflict has not yet been reached. More than 150,000 people living in Pennsylvania are Ukrainians and Ukrainian Americans, making the Keystone State the home to the second largest population in the nation. Clinton acknowledged that part of the challenge is ending the conflict after it starts and referenced how President Bill Clinton's administration played a role in ending conflicts in Northern Ireland and the Balkans. 'You have to look at all the different levers of power and utilize them appropriately,' Clinton said. 'Where does diplomacy work? Where does military force play a role? And what can we do to promote our values by working with people who want to have freedom and democracy.' On a question about defense spending, Clinton warned that cybersecurity is 'clearly one of our biggest threats' currently facing the United States. She said she believes that deterrence is what is needed right now in the world, arguing it would send a message to the United States' adversaries. 'We know that our adversaries, primarily Russia and China, have the capacity to cripple our infrastructure,' Clinton said. 'We have the capacity to cripple their infrastructure.' 'We have to be better prepared and better able to deter them than they can hurt us,' she added. Sunday was the final day of the gathering at the Sheraton Hotel in Center City. Several Pennsylvania elected officials participated in the multi-day conference, including Gov. Shapiro, House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D-Philadelphia), and state Sen. Joe Picozzi (R-Philadelphia). SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
2 days ago
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Hillary, Huma and Amal walk into a bar: Newest female Dem power trio spotted at NYC hotspot
They're the ladies on the left who lunch. The newest female Democratic power trio was recently spotted at the swanky Midtown restaurant The Polo Bar. Huma Abedin, the ex-wife of disgraced Congressman Anthony Weiner, broke bread with Hillary Clinton and George Clooney's wife, Amal, at the celebrity hotspot last week, a source told Paula Froelich of NewsNation. 'There were secret security and bodyguards everywhere,' the source said. 'They were just huddled together at a table talking.' Abedin is tying the knot with philanthropist George Soros' son Alex, who controls his dad's $25 billion dollar Open Society Foundations, one of the world's largest private philanthropic funds that donates to liberal political causes. The 48-year-old — who started her political career as an intern for Clinton in 1996, then became her deputy chief of staff and vice chair of her 2016 presidential campaign — now runs the Democratic Party inside circle, Froelich's sources said. Clooney, an international lawyer, and her hubby — who famously penned the 2024 New York Times essay 'I Love Joe Biden, But We Need A New Nominee' — are liberal icons and run the Clooney Foundation for Justice together. Abedin, Clinton and Clooney are now considered 'the female triumvirate of the Democratic Party,' Froelich said, adding that Adedin's wedding to Soros will take on June 14 in the Hamptons and may include the Dems talking about plans to revive the party. 'If these people are picking the new party head, we are in trouble,' an insider told her.
Yahoo
5 days ago
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Readers sound off on teaching trades, the Boulder attack and Charles Rangel
Manhattan: If President Trump wants to 'Make America Great Again,' he should do the following: Build a 'big, beautiful' trade school in the Bronx, Queens or Brooklyn. Call it the Trump Vocational High School for the Trades and make it a private school. Any graduate from a middle school can apply to the lottery for admittance. The cost should be $60,000 a year. The beautiful upper-class child will pay that. Beautiful children with little family money will be offered a scholarship based on need. This is not affirmative action, which is now illegal. This beautiful private high school with Trump's blessing would teach all the trades and have all the equipment to do it. It would be state-of-the-art and would cost a lot of money to operate, but it would be worth it. The cost of prosecuting and incarcerating each criminal in New York is more than $500,000 a year. One in four Black children born in the U.S. will face time in jail, and one in six Hispanic children will. I am willing to bet that a student entering this school will not commit any crime. They will thrive, prosper and learn a trade that will keep them out of harm's way for the rest of their lives. I don't have to list all the trades, like electrical, construction, masonry, woodworking, plumbing, car mechanics, cooking etc. The school should also offer classes in the arts, which will probably develop more character in each student. It should not involve memorizing facts, but focus on exploring the beauty of art, music, theater, dance, science and nature. What better place than NYC to explore this? Leonard Smoke Manhattan: With business slow because of a decline in tourism, dishwashers and busboys not showing up for work due to fear of ICE agent raids, combined with increased prices of supplies due to tariffs, I am not sure how much longer I can keep my restaurant going during Trump's 'Make America Great Again' administration. Mahatma Kane Jeeves Henderson, Nev.: Even after being found at fault, I'm surprised that Rep. Maxine Waters' campaign committee has agreed to pay $68,000 for campaign violations. I'm surprised, mainly because whenever Trump does something she doesn't agree with, she's always among the first to say nasty things about him. Maybe now people will start to realize that Maxine is hardly an angel. David Tulanian Lynchburg, Tenn.: It seems like the pro-Trumpers can never let Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden enjoy their retirements, as witnessed by their endless disparaging of Clinton and Biden to distract Americans from the complete and utter disaster the second Trump administration has become. From Voicer Jim Newton, everyone is reminded about the alleged 'cover-up' of Biden's mental health and 'Hillary Clinton's Benghazi mess,' which resulted in the deaths of four Americans. Mental decline and needless deaths of Americans are politically acceptable as long as they are on full public display from a president whose political ideology aligns with yours — for example, Trump's incoherent, rambling, ludicrous efforts during his first term to hoodwink the American public into believing that COVID would miraculously disappear while refrigerator trucks had to be used in hospital parking lots to store the thousands of corpses funeral homes could not accommodate on a daily basis. Godfrey Daniel Jr. Bronx: Trump is blaming Biden's open borders for the attack on the people in Boulder, Colo., but according to Trump, Biden was executed in 2020. How can a dead man be blamed? Richie Nagan Bedford, N.Y.: Re 'Colo. fiend wanted to 'kill Zionists' ' (June 3): Violence against any peaceful protest should always be condemned. However, the media is ignoring the reason for the rising antisemitism in the U.S. and throughout the world. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to find and rescue all the Oct. 7 hostages, he has managed the slaughter of 70,000 people, including 17,000 babies and children, some burned alive in hospitals, press tents, in vans transporting humanitarian aid or in emergency food distribution areas 'strategically' designated by the Israeli government. Netanyahu and his disproportionate response to the Hamas attack are responsible for making Israel the world's pariah, and has made innocent Jews the target of hatred and violence. This will not end until Netanyahu ceases his war on children and is tried and convicted for war crimes. Céline Secada Fort Lauderdale, Fla.: As antisemitism is growing globally, here at home it is growing daily. Are people aligning themselves with Hitler's antisemitic objectives through the process of elimination, or do they detest the Jewish state of Israel so deeply that they shoot and kill any Jew randomly just to satisfy the hate they carry inside? The Nazi extermination plan was a complete failure! Every innocent Jew was killed in vain because of antisemitic beliefs, just as innocent Jews are being struck down today for those same beliefs. It proved nothing then and it proves nothing now because the Jew was never the enemy in the first place. The real enemy is the hate that lives within one's thoughts. Roberta Chaleff Canton, N.Y.: The Daily News seems mystified as to why anti-Jewish sentiment is on the rise. It's of course obvious to anyone who isn't deeply compromised by AIPAC and Israel's lobbyists. When we wake up daily for months to the news that Israel has killed more Palestinian refugees — people driven from their homeland decades ago by Zionist settlers — with American-made weapons, it should be obvious. Greg Todd Peters Township, Pa.: It is ironic and tragic that as he welcomes white immigrants who claim to have been persecuted in South Africa, our dictator president has slammed the door on those hailing from other countries, including Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Afghanistan. People being readied for deportation include those who've been here legally under humanitarian provisions, those who've been promised resettlement here and those who risked their lives to aid our ill-fated occupation of Afghanistan. Many face persecution, arrest, torture, and/or death if they're forced to return to their home countries. An administration that has turned its back on human rights could not care less. The word of the U.S. is no longer its bond. The new Trump America is a cold and cruel place that seeks to purge our country of immigrants of color, bully the rest of the free world into submission and believes the U.S. can exist and thrive with no alliances. Oren Spiegler Lynbrook, L.I.: I read the article by Leonard Greene highlighting the accomplishments of Charles Rangel ('Young lion to political giant,' column, June 1), however, two important pieces were missing. Rangel was able to get apartments that he was well-qualified for that were probably intended for those who had limited resources who needed a decent place to live with their family. How did the former congressman qualify? He didn't need affordable housing (my opinion). In 1972, Patrolman Phil Cardillo was shot (later died). Rangel was able to go to the crime scene and told the NYPD that he would bring those responsible to the 28th Precinct the next day. That never happened. Why? We'll never know, but we can think he should have never been able to use his status to interfere with an active police investigation. Rangel should have been arrested and charged with interfering with the arrest of those involved. Larry Lombardo Brooklyn: June 3 marked the 100th birthday of the beloved actor Tony Curtis. He worked in films as real-life people: David O. Selznick, the Great Imposter, Sam Giancana, Lepke, the Boston Strangler, Houdini and Ira Hayes, the Marine who planted the flag on Iwo Jima. Curtis worked in films with Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, Dean Martin, Kirk Douglas, Sidney Poitier, Ernest Borgnine, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster, Jack Lemmon, Laurence Olivier and Jerry Lewis. His leading ladies were Janet Leigh, Marilyn Monroe, Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood. Curtis never shot a boring scene. Mike Getz
