European leaders hold emergency summit ahead of U.S.-Russia meeting in Saudi Arabia
European leaders are having an emergency meeting in Paris as concerns grow that Ukraine is being left out of U.S. peace talks with Russia. CBS News Middle East reporter Courtney Kealy has more.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Macron visits Greenland to show European support for the strategic Arctic island coveted by Trump
'The situation in Greenland is clearly a wakeup call for all Europeans. Let me tell you very directly that you're not alone,' Macron added. Sunday's symbolic stop to Greenland comes as the French leader is on his way to a summit of the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations in Canada that will be also attended by Trump. Advertisement Macron was greeted in Nuuk, the territory's capital, by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. Asked whether France would be ready to militarily support Greenland if Trump was to decide to invade, Macron declined to discuss the hypothesis. 'I won't start elaborating on 'what if' scenarios publicly,' he said. 'Because I don't believe that in the end, the U.S., which is an ally and a friend, would ever do something aggressive against another ally.' Macron's role in Europe Macron in recent months has sought to reinvigorate France's role as the diplomatic and economic heavyweight of the 27-nation European Union. The French president has positioned himself as a leader in Europe amid Trump's threats to pull support from Ukraine as it fights against Russia's invasion. Macron hosted a summit in Paris with other European heads of state to discuss Kyiv, as well as security issues on the continent. Advertisement On Sunday, Macron, Frederiksen and Nielsen held a meeting on a Danish helicopter carrier, showing France's concerns over security issues in the region. All three then headed to a fast-melting glacier where they watched the consequences of climate change. The visit also allowed them to discuss economic development, low-carbon energy transition and critical minerals. 'It's a strange time for us in Greenland,' Nielsen said. 'We live on some democratic principles built up for many years: respect for international law, respect for borders, respect for law of the sea, and we are glad you could stand with us to state that those principles are very very important.' Trump and Greenland Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon has developed plans to take over Greenland and Panama by force if necessary but refused to answer repeated questions during a hotly combative congressional hearing Thursday about his use of Signal chats to discuss military operations. Hegseth's comments were the latest controversial remarks made by a member of the Trump administration about the Arctic island. The president himself has said he won't rule out military force to take over Greenland, which he considers vital to American security in the high north. The Wall Street Journal last month reported that several high-ranking officials under the U.S. director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, had directed intelligence agency heads to learn more about Greenland's independence movement and sentiment about U.S. resource extraction there. Nielsen in April said that U.S. statements about the island have been disrespectful and that Greenland 'will never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by just anyone.' Advertisement Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report.
Business Insider
2 hours ago
- Business Insider
Denmark allocates millions of dollars to attract African students in strategic immigration program
According to LocalDenmark, the Nordic country aims to host 230 African students annually for the next eight years, primarily to foster deeper cultural and diplomatic integrations. As stated by its Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, " It's clearly in our interest that African countries look towards Europe when considering their future paths. With this new program, we're not just investing in education, but in relationships that build a vital bridge between Denmark and Africa." The program is also expected to strengthen ties between Danish and African universities, promoting knowledge exchange and collaborative research initiatives. Meanwhile, some 430 million Danish kroner ($61 million) has been allocated since 2024 to support this initiative, underscoring Denmark's commitment to its pro-Africa immigration policy and strategy. This move by Denmark is part of a broader European effort to maintain relevance and influence in Africa, amid growing competition from China and Russia, particularly as the US continues to enforce strict immigration policies targeting African migrants. According to Minister for Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund, " Africa has enormous potential, which we can help unlock through education. By 2050, a third of the world's youth will live in Africa, and the continent's geopolitical importance is growing rapidly." In return, Denmark also hopes to see more of its own students pursuing studies and exchange programmes in African institutions. ' There's immense potential in Africa. Education is a two-way bridge, ' Løkke said The scholarship provides comprehensive support, covering tuition fees, living expenses, and potentially including travel assistance. Successful applicants may also be eligible to participate in the EU's Erasmus+ program, offering additional exchange opportunities. Denmark's Africa strategy Denmark is known for having some of the strictest immigration policies in Europe, with conditions growing increasingly rigid since the 1990s. While this tough approach has achieved its intended effects, it has also introduced new challenges. During a visit to Ghana last year, Denmark's Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen hinted at a shift in immigration policy. He framed the change as a way to safeguard Denmark's core interests, noting that Europe is shrinking—not just in population, but also in its share of the global economy. This perspective is central to the Danish government's new Africa strategy, unveiled on 26 August 2024. The strategy focuses on deepening ties with African nations through expanded trade, investment, and educational exchanges. One of its key goals is to attract top talent from Africa to pursue education in Denmark, thereby fostering a network with long-term political and economic benefits for the country. For many African students, this initiative offers a gateway to high-quality education in Europe, while also fostering stronger partnerships in areas such as science, technology, innovation, governance, and sustainable development between Africa and Denmark.
Atlantic
10 hours ago
- Atlantic
Fathers Don't Just Protect—They Prepare
My grandfather was born in 1882 in the small Ukrainian town of Zawale, which was part of the vast, multiethnic Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1914, this mega-state, like so many European nations, threw itself into a world war with frenzied enthusiasm. My grandfather later told my father how puzzled he had been to watch thousands of happy young men—really still just boys—boarding trains in Vienna, cheering as they went off to what was almost certainly their death. He did not volunteer, he avoided conscription, and he survived. His son, my father, was born in Vienna in 1927. He was 6 years old when Adolf Hitler became the chancellor of Germany. Austria still had a few years of freedom left, and my grandfather used them well: Because an archive had burned down, several of his family documents had to be reissued. Through skillful manipulation, he managed to turn himself from a Jew into what the Nazis would later classify as a 'half Jew.' And as Germany's annexation of Austria became inevitable, he came up with an especially daring idea: In a court proceeding, he had his wife, my grandmother, declared the illegitimate daughter of the janitor in her parents' building. He bribed witnesses who testified that her mother had had an affair with that janitor. It worked: My grandmother was officially declared the daughter of an Aryan. And as a result, my family survived. This Father's Day, I find myself reflecting not only on paternal love but on paternal foresight—the clarity and focus it takes to see what others might not, to act before the danger has a name. Raising children is always a challenge, but never more so than in times of deep insecurity about what the future will look like. To meet that challenge, it can help to look at the generations that came before. Anne Applebaum: This is what Trump does when his revolution sputters Despite my grandfather's efforts, life for my father quickly changed under the Nazis. In swimming school, two boys nearly drowned him while the lifeguard looked on, grinning. When my father finally emerged, gasping for breath, the lifeguard laughed and said, 'Can't swim, Jew?' Around the same time, the man who lived in the neighboring house began watching my father and his sister with dark, brooding looks. But only after Hitler's army had entered Austria did he begin shouting, each and every time they passed: 'Jewwws!' My father would recount these events with amused detachment. He had already learned as a teenager to recognize the profound absurdity of Nazism—the deep, grotesque nonsense of what Charlie Chaplin and Ernst Lubitsch were turning into dark political comedies at the same time in Hollywood. A few months later, two men came to my grandparents and ordered them to leave their house with their children. They moved into a small apartment, and their home was 'bought'—at a tiny, symbolic price—by the 'Jewww'-shouting neighbor. Corruption is the most corrosive force in a democracy, but in a dictatorship it can save you. Once a month, a Gestapo officer would appear at my grandparents' apartment and take something valuable—a piece of furniture, a porcelain plate, a painting. In return, the file on my grandparents would sink a little lower in the stack on his desk. At my father's school, the boys had to line up, and all those tall enough were asked—in fact, ordered—to volunteer for the SS. My father raised his hand and said, 'Requesting permission to report—I'm one-quarter Jewish!' To which the SS man shouted in disgust, 'Step back!' And so my father was spared from becoming a war criminal in Hitler's service. In almost every situation, having Jewish ancestry was a mortal danger. But in this one instance, it became his salvation. In the final months of the war, my father was arrested after all and spent three months in a concentration camp close to Vienna, constantly at risk of death. But after the war had ended, there was still a striking atmosphere of leniency toward the perpetrators. When he went to the local police station to give a statement about his time in the camp, he was met with scornful dismissiveness. 'It wasn't really that bad, was it?' the officer asked. 'Aren't we exaggerating a little?' It was then that my father decided to move from Austria to Germany, paradoxically—because there, under pressure from the occupying powers, some reckoning with the past was taking place. Austria, meanwhile, had successfully cast itself as the war's first victim. Timothy W. Ryback: Hitler used a bogus crisis of 'public order' to make himself dictator I tell my son, who never met his grandfather (as I never met mine), that my father was obsessed throughout his life with the idea that what had happened once could happen again—not just to Jews, but to anyone. Of course, my son, raised in a seemingly stable world, feels profoundly safe. And that's a good thing. But we are currently living in the United States, a country that for my grandfather was a refuge impossible to reach, but that is currently in the throes of what some serious scholars now describe as an authoritarian power grab. And even in Germany, where we could easily return, a right-wing extremist party is now so strong that it might come in first in the next election. So I think about the responsibility of raising a child in a time when the future is impossible to predict. I think, more and more, of my grandfather, who in 1914 watched people plunge into war hysteria and decided to resist their excitement, and who would later take very unconventional steps—steps that would, after history took a turn for the worse, ensure his family's survival. My grandfather understood the psychology of fanaticism very early; my father understood the stupidity and mediocrity of the people whom the dictatorship empowered, without mistaking them for harmless clowns. Now, as we watch society once again take a dangerous turn—as books are banned, people are sent to foreign prisons without even a court order, and soldiers are deployed against protesters—I wonder what stories my future grandchildren will one day need to remember. Memory is not a picture book; it's a tool. And fatherhood, especially in times like these, is not just about protection. It is about preparation.
