Estonian president: Ukraine will become NATO member in long term
Estonian President Alar Karis has urged people not to lose hope in Ukraine's future NATO membership, even though there is currently no unanimous political will among allies to approve it.
Source: Alar Karis in an interview with Lithuanian broadcaster LRT, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Karis was asked whether he believes Ukraine's accession to NATO is realistic in light of former US President Donald Trump's recent remarks dismissing the idea.
Quote: "It's worth remembering that Estonia began discussing NATO membership when Russian troops were still on our soil, and not everyone believed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would ever become NATO members. But here we are – NATO members and allies."
More details: Karis added that both Finland and Sweden have recently joined NATO despite a long history of neutrality.
"Ukraine also needs security guarantees. And in the long term, we are convinced Ukraine will become a NATO member as well," Karis said.
Background:
Estonia plans to allocate over 5% of its GDP to defence needs next year.
Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur believes NATO countries can realistically raise their defence spending to 5% of GDP within five years.
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Most of the American and foreign scholars approved by the board had gotten early signals from officials and commissions of their acceptances so they could arrange leaves from their universities and prepare to move overseas for about a year. June 11, 2025, 10:11 a.m. ET Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, just off the plane after trade talks with Chinese officials in London, is now testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee. In his prepared remarks, Bessent said: 'China has a singular opportunity to stabilize its economy by shifting away from excess production towards greater consumption. But the country needs to be a reliable partner in trade negotiations.' He added that if China will 'course-correct by upholding its end of the initial trade agreement we outlined in Geneva last month' the world's two largest economies can rebalance trade relations. June 11, 2025, 10:04 a.m. ET General Motors said it would invest $4 billion to expand production of gasoline-powered and electric models in the United States, in some cases relocating production from Mexico. The move may help it win favor with President Trump, who has complained about companies making cars in Mexico. G.M. said late Tuesday it would relocate production of the Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle from Mexico to its factory in Kansas City. It also said it would produce gasoline-powered Chevrolet Blazer S.U.V.s at its factory in Spring Hill, Tenn., alongside electric Cadillac models. G.M. had been expected to move Blazer production to Mexico. Credit... Brett Carlsen for The New York Times June 11, 2025, 8:18 a.m. ET President Trump said in a Truth Social post this morning that the economic deal between the U.S. and China 'is done' and that China has committed to supplying the U.S. with magnets and rare earth minerals. He said that Chinese students would continue to have access to American colleges and universities. On tariffs, Trump said that the tariff rate for Chinese imports would be 55 percent, while China's tariff rate would be 10 percent. 'Relationship is excellent,' Trump wrote. The president noted that the deal was subject to final approval from him and President Xi Jinping of China. Bryan Bedford recently criticized the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency President Trump nominated him to lead, for what he called a 'lack of strategic vision.' Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Bryan Bedford, President Trump's pick to lead the Federal Aviation Administration, refused on Wednesday to commit to holding all commercial pilots to the same federal training requirements, unnerving Democrats as he outlined his vision to modernize the air travel safety agency at a critical moment. The issue emerged as a flashpoint during Mr. Bedford's confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which centered mostly on issues of safety. Mr. Bedford, a longtime airline executive, is expected to receive enough support to be confirmed. Nevertheless, he is auditioning to run the F.A.A. as the agency tries to address several issues, including an air traffic controller staffing shortage and outdated technology that has caused significant outages and delays, that critics have said make flying riskier. 'I'm a big supporter of structured training as opposed to pure time building,' he told senators of the current federal training requirements, later adding that: 'I don't believe safety is static.' Mr. Bedford has been a longtime critic of the federal requirement that commercial pilots complete 1,500 flight hours of training, a standard he called 'arbitrary' in congressional testimony in 2014. In 2022, as the leader of Republic Airways, he petitioned the F.A.A. to allow graduates of Republic's flight school to be certified after completing only 750 hours of training, the same number required of military pilots seeking to pilot commercial aircraft. The petition was denied. As F.A.A. administrator, Mr. Bedford would have some discretion to grant such waivers to other pilots, and potentially even to graduates of Republic's school, if they reapply for a waiver, after a mandatory two-year recusal period with which he has agreed to comply. On Wednesday, he declined to pledge he would not dole out such waivers until the F.A.A. could fully staff air traffic control towers, rankling Democrats. They warned that chipping away at pilot safety standards before other safeguards were in place could lead to more midair accidents like the fatal collision between a commercial jet and a military helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29. 'Now is not the time for less cockpit time for the pilots,' Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, the top Democrat on the panel's aviation subcommittee, said while questioning Mr. Bedford, adding: 'In incident after incident it has been the pilots — the pilots — who made a last-second decision to avert disaster.' Fears about air travel safety came to a head this year after the crash near Reagan Airport. The ensuing crisis of confidence in air travel has inspired sweeping debate over how to balance the oftentimes competing demands of speed and safety as officials rush to fix the F.A.A.'s longstanding problems. While Mr. Bedford's stance on pilot training is expected to cost him support among Democrats, the panel's top Republican backed his position. 'Fifteen hundred hours of mindless banner towing is no way to train a commercial pilot,' Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the panel's chairman, said during the hearing. Mr. Bedford repeatedly emphasized that his top priority as administrator would be improving the air traffic control system. He pledged to accelerate the hiring of controllers and roll out more advanced technology, much of which he argued was already commercially available. 'There's stuff that's on the market today, made by American manufacturers, that they're selling abroad,' he argued, adding later: 'The tools that we are giving our work force are unacceptable.' As part of that, Mr. Bedford endorsed the expansion of tracking technologies that would allow airplanes — including military aircraft — to be more visible to air traffic controllers, noting that the military helicopter that crashed into an American Airlines plane near National Airport had turned off its tracking device. Mr. Bedford spoke favorably of the Essential Air Service, a federal program that subsidizes air travel to rural and underserved areas, despite a Trump administration proposal to slash its budget by about half. He also noted that he would support an influx of federal funds to upgrade aging air traffic control towers, saying that though the $12.5 billion Congress had already authorized was 'a great start,' that 'it's going to take a lot more than that.' But he was cautious about running afoul of other initiatives Mr. Trump has championed. After recounting an anecdote about how Republic's flight school, had trained a woman of color to become an airline captain, Mr. Bedford deflected questions about whether he agreed with Mr. Trump's claim that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were at fault in the crash at National Airport. The claim has been roundly criticized. 'I don't have any earthly idea,' Mr. Bedford said. He also sidestepped queries about whether a proposed auction of federal spectrum, the portion of the spectrum used for wireless communications that belongs to the government, to private operators might negatively affect aviation safety. Last week, Mr. Trump endorsed a plan from congressional Republicans to authorize such an auction. 'I'm not informed enough to formulate an opinion,' Mr. Bedford said, despite Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, the panel's top Democrat, insisting that Mr. Bedford had previously told her that the proposed auction would be 'a big problem.' 'We had significant challenges with the last spectrum,' Mr. Bedford replied, adding: 'I said for the record we should learn those lessons of the past and act more collaboratively.' Several airline companies and trade associations, as well as the air traffic controllers' union, have backed Mr. Bedford's candidacy. But a union representing airline pilots has raised concerns, pointing to his stance on training. On Wednesday, family members of recent plane crash victims who attended the hearing also offered mixed critiques of Mr. Bedford's stance on lowering pilot training standards. 'If we get the very best training, there may be room for that,' said Tim Lilley, whose son, Sam Lilley, was one of the pilots for the flight that was hit by an Army Blackhawk helicopter on Jan. 29. The elder Mr. Lilley previously flew Blackhawk helicopters for the Army for 20 years. 'His additional training, we were all for, but make that in addition to the 1,500 hours,' said Ron Aughtmon, who lost his uncle, John Fiore, in the 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407, which prompted Congress to order the 1,500-hour rule be put in place. 'There shouldn't be a reduction. It works.' In ethics disclosures, Mr. Bedford promised to resign from his current positions running or serving on the boards of various airlines, noting that he expected to receive a lump-sum severance payment and outstanding bonuses from Republic upon leaving his position should he be confirmed as the next F.A.A. leader. He also committed to serving a full five-year term to ensure that the agency had stable leadership as it tried to accelerated fixes. The F.A.A. has had five leaders in the last four years. The push for an inquiry is tied to a conference Harvard held as part of a broader 'Harvard China Health Partnership.' Credit... Sophie Park for The New York Times Secretary of State Marco Rubio is pushing to investigate whether Harvard University violated federal sanctions by collaborating on a health insurance conference in China that may have included officials blacklisted by the U.S. government, according to people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Rubio signed off on a recommendation to the Treasury Department last month to open an investigation, which experts and former Treasury officials said was an unusual attempt from a cabinet secretary to target a domestic entity for sanctions enforcement. Whether the agency within the Treasury that handles sanctions, the Office of Foreign Assets Control, opened an investigation in response was unclear — but such a move could expose Harvard to significant legal risks. Mr. Rubio's action is the latest example of the Trump administration's whole-of-government approach to bringing the Ivy League university to heel. President Trump has sought for months to impose his political agenda on Harvard by reshaping its curriculum, admissions and hiring processes. The effort initially relied primarily on accusations that university officials had not done enough to address antisemitism on campus. In recent weeks, however, the administration's focus has expanded to other issues, including allegations about Harvard's foreign ties, particularly to China. A potential sanctions investigation demonstrates how Harvard's problems with the government extend far beyond questions of whether the school will continue receiving federal funding. Mr. Trump and his allies appear determined to upend nearly all aspects of the institution, which has long symbolized the pinnacle of higher learning in the country and attracted influential scholars from around the globe. A spokesman for the Treasury Department said the agency takes any allegations of sanctions violations 'extremely seriously' but declined to comment on a possible or pending sanctions investigation. A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The health insurance conference, known as the Training Course on Health Financing, began in 2019 as a joint venture between Harvard, the World Bank and the National Health Insurance Administration, the arm of the Chinese government that oversees the state-backed health care system, according to the university's website. Over the years, training has focused on topics like 'innovative provider payment methods' and 'pricing and payment for internet health.' The university has promoted the event, which in some years has drawn upward of 200 people, as a key part of a broader 'Harvard China Health Partnership' inside its T.H. Chan School for Public Health. University officials have previously described the event as aimed at expanding access to high-quality health care for 1.4 billion people in China. Behind Mr. Rubio's sanctions push is the presence of officials from a Chinese state-run group called the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps at some, if not all, of the conferences since 2019. The X.P.C.C. is known in northwest China for building towns and running its own university and hospital systems. The group is also responsible for systemic human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the region, according to the U.S. government. The Chinese government formed the X.P.C.C. more than seven decades ago as a paramilitary organization tasked with settling a distant region with many ethnic groups and some militias. The Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the group in 2020. Harvard has been conducting an internal review into the X.P.C.C.'s involvement at the conference, but it was unclear what details had been turned up, according to two people familiar with the inquiry who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal university deliberations. A Harvard spokesman declined to comment. An archived version of a Harvard webpage about the inaugural conference noted that participants in the training included the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. That event occurred one year before the U.S. government targeted the group for sanctions, but mention of the X.P.C.C. has since been deleted. A Chinese government website about the 2023 conference shows that participants that year — three years after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the X.P.C.C. — included Chinese health officials, scholars from 'top universities,' such as Harvard, and representatives of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Still, the X.P.C.C.'s involvement in the conference only recently gained attention from Trump allies, after a report about Harvard's links to China published on April 22 by Strategy Risks, a New York-based intelligence company specializing in corporate exposure to China. The report was funded by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank that has advised Republican policymakers. Since then, the report's details have been highlighted in news articles from conservative media outlets and public statements from Republican officials. On May 15, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas cited the Strategy Risks report in a letter to Mr. Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, urging an investigation into Harvard's public health school. On May 19, Republicans on the House education committee sent a request for records to Harvard about, in part, the X.P.C.C.'s involvement in the conference. On May 22, the Department of Homeland Security said that Harvard had 'hosted and trained' members of the group and included a link to a Fox News article about the House Republican records request in its news release. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, signed off on a recommendation to the Treasury Department, led by Scott Bessent, right, last month to open an investigation into Harvard. Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Investigations of potential sanctions violations could take months or years, while penalties range from a cautionary letter from the government to significant financial damages. Other cabinet secretaries — like the secretary of state — often coordinate with the Treasury secretary on foreign individuals, groups or countries that they believe should be subject to sanctions. But it is atypical for the nation's chief diplomat to single out an American individual, group or company for a potential violation, according to John Smith, a former director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Sanctions investigations, Mr. Smith said, are typically started after reporting in media or from companies, the intelligence community or law enforcement. 'I wouldn't say it's wrong or improper,' Mr. Smith said. 'I would just say it's unusual and not the usual course of business.' Typically, after learning of a potential violation, the Office of Foreign Assets Control decides whether to open an investigation. If the office ultimately finds wrongdoing, the Treasury could impose civil penalties and recommend that the Justice Department pursue criminal charges. In particularly egregious instances, companies can be hit with civil and criminal penalties that come with fines as high as billions of dollars. Harvard has confronted a tumultuous two months since Mr. Trump set his sights on the school. In some ways, Harvard has been victimized by the success of its yearslong push to expand its global influence, which has abruptly crashed into the nationalist impulses fueling Mr. Trump's 'America First' agenda. Many of Harvard's attempts at inroads in China began relatively recently, when Washington was engaged with Beijing as a strategic and economic partner. China is now viewed more widely as an adversary, a shift that accelerated during Mr. Trump's first administration. Harvard brought an initial lawsuit against the administration in April, accusing the government of trying to assert control over the school with threats to cut federal funding. By then, the Trump administration had already blocked $2.2 billion in various grants. Since the lawsuit was filed, the university and its research partners have lost nearly another $1.5 billion in support from the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Department and other federal agencies. The university is also fighting in court over an effort from Mr. Trump and the Homeland Security Department to revoke visas from Harvard's international students, who account for about one-fourth of the student body, and bar them from the country. Harvard has been targeted by additional investigations from the Education Department, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Health and Human Services Department and the Justice Department. Isaac Stone Fish, the founder and chief executive of Strategy Risks, said he started his company in 2021 after working as a journalist in Beijing. In 2022, he published a book, 'America Second,' that traces the recent transition of the U.S.-China relationship, from economic partners to open rivals. Mr. Stone Fish said his report, cited by conservatives, should not be read as a 'blanket condemnation' of Harvard. He praised the university for pushing ahead on what he described as crucial research and scholarship into China. But he also argued that the X.P.C.C. was 'one of the world's most notorious organizations' and that the university's partnerships should be held to a high standard. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, speaking at a Bloomberg News event in Washington on Tuesday, defended the administration's punishing approach to Harvard and said it was a way to shift an ideological tilt she views as hostile to conservatives. Asked to summarize the administration's successes so far in its battle with Harvard, she pointed to the departure of two faculty members in March from the university's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. 'We have noticed that they did replace their head of Middle Eastern studies because they felt that they needed to make some adjustments there,' Ms. McMahon said. 'So we're pleased to see that.' All of the federal funding cuts for Harvard — and eight of the 10 federal investigations into the university — have happened since the professors left campus. Elon Musk in the Oval Office last month. Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times Elon Musk said in a social media post early Wednesday that he regretted some of his posts and comments about President Trump last week, which had led the president to disparage the tech billionaire, a feud that played out in real time on social media. Mr. Musk said on his X platform that some of his posts about Mr. Trump 'went too far.' Mr. Musk, the world's richest person, was once among the president's closest advisers, overseeing a major effort to slash spending and reduce the size of the federal work force. But he and Mr. Trump had a dramatic and public falling out after the Tesla chief executive left his role in the administration. Both men traded barbs on social media, and Mr. Trump said last week that he had no interest in repairing the relationship. Mr. Musk's public expression of regret was another sign of a potential thaw in the standoff with the president. Even last week, Mr. Musk had agreed with a post on X suggesting the two men were 'stronger together.' Mr. Musk has since deleted some of his most incendiary social media posts. Mr. Trump has also toned down some of his public criticisms of Mr. Musk. The protests in Los Angeles also highlighted a key issue where the two men agree: immigration. In recent days, Mr. Musk has used his social media platform to echo Mr. Trump's rhetoric about the protests and need for a strong government response. Mr. Musk's post on Wednesday underscores the complicated power dynamics between the two men. Mr. Musk, who poured roughly $275 million into Mr. Trump's re-election campaign, is the biggest donor in Republican politics. He also has more followers than anyone else on X, the social media platform he owns. But Mr. Trump holds vast political power over Mr. Musk. The billionaire's companies, especially Tesla and SpaceX, have received billions of dollars in federal contracts in recent years. As the two men sparred online last week, Mr. Trump threatened to cut them off as a way to 'save money' in the federal budget. Mr. Musk's companies were promised $3 billion in federal contracts from 17 federal agencies in 2023 alone. A number of federal agencies are investigating or suing companies owned by Mr. Musk. Allies of the two men have been urging them to reconcile. The spat initially focused on Mr. Musk's criticism of Mr. Trump's signature domestic policy bill, which he condemned as a 'disgusting abomination' because it will add substantially to the national debt. But the spat devolved quickly into petty and outlandish attacks. Mr. Musk, for example, suggested that the Trump administration had not released files on the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein because Mr. Trump was named in them. Mr. Trump, at one point, asked why Mr. Musk had not covered up his black eye with makeup during an Oval Office appearance last week. The social media fight came as Mr. Musk had pledged to step back from politics and his work at the Department of Government Efficiency, a federal government cost-cutting project, to refocus on his companies, which are facing important moments for their futures. Tesla has seen its sales slump globally as Mr. Musk's politics have become a strain for the car brand. In the United States, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and France, sales have fallen while other electric carmakers are gaining ground. Tesla is facing a major test later this month, when the company is expected to introduce a new autonomous driving taxi fleet in Austin, Texas, called Robotaxi. Mr. Musk's space company, SpaceX, is also facing challenges. The company is developing the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Test flights thus far have produced mixed results. See more on: Donald Trump © 2025 The New York Times Company Manage Privacy Preferences
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