Latest news with #UkraineCompact
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Netherlands backs Zelensky's presence at upcoming NATO summit
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said on May 25 he wants President Volodymyr Zelensky to attend the NATO summit in The Hague next month, Dutch daily NRC reported. Italy's ANSA news agency reported earlier this month that the United States opposed Zelensky's participation, citing unnamed diplomatic sources. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied the claims. "We are looking at how we can get a place in the program for Zelensky and other Ukrainians," Brekelmans said during an appearance on the Dutch television program WNL op Zondag, according to NRC. "As far as the Netherlands is concerned, Zelensky is welcome at every meeting." While it remains unclear whether Zelensky would be allowed to address the full plenary session with all 32 NATO allies, Brekelmans did not rule out alternative formats. "It can also be in another form. Whether that will be in a session with (U.S. President Donald) Trump, I don't know," he added. At the previous NATO summit in Washington in 2024, Zelensky was a prominent presence, engaging directly with allied leaders. This year, the tone appears more cautious as NATO members weigh how to handle Ukraine's future in the alliance amid renewed questions about U.S. commitment. Trump has claimed that Ukraine provoked the war by pursuing NATO membership, a narrative often used by Russian propaganda to justify its 2022 full-scale invasion. The June 24-25 summit in The Hague will be the first one led by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. According to NATO officials who spoke with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Rutte will need to navigate a delicate political landscape and manage Trump's expectations. NATO allies are also likely to announce a new collective commitment to boost defense expenditures to 5% of GDP – a dramatic leap from the current 2% target. Of that, 3.5% would go to weapons and artillery, with 1.5% allocated for cybersecurity and military infrastructure, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. To minimize internal disagreements, the summit has reportedly been shortened from three days to two. Discussions are expected to focus on defense spending and strengthening the defense industrial base. Notably, this year's communique may omit direct mention of both Russia and Ukraine — a contrast to past summits where Ukraine dominated the agenda. One NATO official told RFE/RL that referencing Ukraine at all could open the door to internal disputes and a watered-down message. In 2024, the Alliance adopted the Ukraine Compact, a long-term security framework signed by all 32 NATO members. The compact, which was built upon the 2023 G7 declaration in Vilnius, outlines commitments to train Ukrainian forces, provide military and economic aid, and respond collectively in the event of renewed Russian aggression. Read also: 'Putin remains confident in Russia's ultimate victory in Ukraine,' US intelligence reports We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Toronto Sun
11-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
HANSON: Any chance the left will finally explain the inexplicable?
President Joe Biden speaks during an event on the Ukraine Compact on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. Photo by Susan Walsh / AP Somewhere between 10 and 12 million illegal aliens were invited into the United States by the Joe Biden administration. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account As far as logistics go, former president Biden could not flee Afghanistan without getting 13 Marines killed and abandoning to the terrorist Taliban $50 billion in munitions, a billion-dollar embassy and a $300-million retrofitted huge airbase. But Biden and his handlers proved far more logistically capable when their target was fellow Americans. After all, they somehow managed to stop the congressionally approved continuance of the border wall, to subvert federal immigration law, to emasculate the border patrol and ensure millions of people around the world could walk into the U.S. illegally, unaudited and with impunity. But why did Biden or his puppeteers do something so anarchic, so injurious to their fellow Americans? Why cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars in massive new entitlements? Why swamp the social services of our poor citizens? Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Why turn loose half a million criminal aliens and gang members to prey on our own weak and defenceless? Was the idea to alter the demography in one fell swoop? To grow the dependent class, thereby expanding government? Was it pure spite born of hatred of half the country? Was it to ensure future constituencies, given that the Democratic agenda no longer appeals to most Americans? Was it a globalist gambit to demonstrate borders are anachronistic? Those who perpetrated the greatest ruse in American presidential history by staging the Biden presidency will never divulge their ultimate agenda. They knowingly fixed the 2020 primaries to ensure a non-compos-Biden would be nominated. Under the cover of the COVID lockdowns, they kept him in his basement while operatives radically altered the voting laws in the key swing states. For the next four years, they put their waxen effigy in a hermetically sealed cocoon — one of avoidance of the press, three-day workweeks and four-hour workdays. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Yet Biden could still not read huge-font, teleprompted scripts. He could not finish a simple call for unity without snarling, screaming and damning his opposition as 'semi-fascists,' 'ultra-MAGA' and 'garbage.' Was the point to salvage the Democratic Party for one last hurrah? Was that the idea behind clearing the primary field and anointing a decrepit 'good ol' Joe Biden from Scranton' veneer? Or was it more sinister still in the sense that a debilitated Biden facade was a godsend for the left? Did his pseudo-centrist cover ensure his handlers — the Barack Obama crowd, the DEI chauvinists and the Bernie Sanders socialists — could enact from the shadows the most radical agenda since 1933? Will anyone ever tell us why they endangered and nearly ruined the country with a zombie president? Why did the left break every prior pretence of legality and of fair play in trying to wreck an entire legal system just to destroy Donald Trump? This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Why did the so-called stewards of jurisprudence coordinate four local, state and federal prosecutions to cook up 93 indictments — the vast majority of them ridiculous contortions that will never be charged against any other American? What was behind the disastrous effort to de-ballot Trump in most of the blue states? To 'save' democracy by destroying it? Why did they twice impeach a president and then try him as a private citizen? Why did SWAT teams swarm an ex-president's home to carry off over 10,000 documents to find 102 classified files? Why did the FBI bring its own pre-prepared classification labels? Why scatter photo files on the floor? Had Trump destroyed subpoenaed evidence like Hillary Clinton's emails? Had Trump stored the files, Biden-style, at four different locations? Had Trump earlier just flunked rather than aced the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, would special counsel Jack Smith — as did Robert Hur in the Biden file case — have dropped all the charges against Trump on the grounds he was 'an elderly man with a poor memory?' So, what was behind the four years of trying to blow up and discredit our legal and law enforcement system just to destroy Trump? Was their goad his accent, his bombast or his tan that so drove the elite left into insanity? Were they convinced they could never beat him in another election? Did they hate him because, in his first term, he had secured the border, grown the economy and had no wars abroad? Or was it an unstoppable fixation, a destructive addiction? In sum, the more he mocked them, the more they sought to destroy him and all the more they ensured he would be president again. Health Sports Toronto Maple Leafs World Sunshine Girls
Toronto Sun
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Biden calls Trump's pressure on Ukraine 'modern-day appeasement' in 1st post-presidential interview
Published May 07, 2025 • 2 minute read President Joe Biden, left, joined by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaks during an event on the Ukraine Compact on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. Photo by Susan Walsh / AP LONDON — Joe Biden said in his first post-presidential interview that President Donald Trump's pressure on Ukraine to give up territory to Russia amounts to 'modern-day appeasement,' a historically fraught term that refers to a failed effort to stop the Nazis from annexing land in Europe in the 1930s. Biden told BBC Radio 4's 'Today' program in remarks aired Wednesday that Trump's statements about acquiring Panama, Greenland and Canada have bred distrust of the United States in Europe. 'What president ever talks like that?' Biden said. 'That's not who we are. We're about freedom, democracy, opportunity — not about confiscation.' He also said it was a 'difficult decision' to leave the U.S. presidential race in 2024 four months from Election Day to allow former Vice President Kamala Harris to challenge Trump. But, he added, making that move earlier as some critics had suggested 'would(n't) have mattered.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account "What the hell's going on here? What president ever talks like that?" President Biden tells @BBCNickRobinson in an exclusive interview with #R4Today that President Trump's foreign policy is 'not who we are' as a country. — BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) May 7, 2025 The term appeasement refers to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's efforts in the 1930s to appease Adolf Hitler's moves to annex land in Europe, which failed to prevent the Second World War. Trump has long dismissed the war in Ukraine as a waste of lives and American taxpayer money. Early in his presidency, Trump ordered a pause in American aid to Ukraine — then resumed it. The two countries last week signed an agreement granting American access to Ukraine's vast mineral resources — a return on investment, Trump suggested, that could pave the way for more U.S. aid. He has also said that Crimea, a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, 'will stay with Russia.' Biden said he worried that relations between the U.S. and Europe was eroding under Trump, with NATO member nations reconsidering whether they trust the U.S. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Europe is going to lose confidence in the certainty of America and the leadership of America,' Biden told the BBC. The continent's leaders, he added, were asking: ''Can I rely on the United States? Are they going to be there?'' Of special concern, Biden said, was the administration's proposal to let Russia keep some Ukrainian territory in an effort to strike a peace deal that would put an end to fighting. 'It is modern-day appeasement,' Biden said. Biden said Trump's thrashing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February was 'beneath America.' 'I don't understand how they fail to understand that there's strength in alliances,' Biden said of the Trump administration on Monday. Asked about Trump's triumphant celebration of his first 100 days in office, Biden replied that he'll let history render the judgement. 'I don't see anything that was triumphant,' he said. Columnists Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls Toronto Blue Jays Toronto & GTA
Winnipeg Free Press
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Biden calls Trump's pressure on Ukraine 'modern-day appeasement' in 1st post-presidential interview
LONDON (AP) — Joe Biden said in his first post-presidential interview that President Donald Trump's pressure on Ukraine to give up territory to Russia amounts to ' modern-day appeasement,' a historically fraught term that refers to a failed effort to stop the Nazis from annexing land in Europe in the 1930s. Biden told BBC Radio 4s 'Today' program in remarks aired Wednesday that Trump's statements about acquiring Panama, Greenland and Canada have bred distrust in Europe. He also said it was a 'difficult decision' to leave the U.S. presidential race in 2024 four months from Election Day to allow former Vice President Kamala Harris to challenge Trump. But, he added, making that move earlier as some critics had suggested 'would(n't) have mattered.' FILE - President Joe Biden, left, joined by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaks during an event on the Ukraine Compact on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) The term appeasement refers to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's efforts in the 1930s to appease Adolf Hitler's moves to annex land in Europe, which failed to prevent World War II. During his interview with BBC Radio 4's 'Today' program, Biden also said that Trump's statements about acquiring Panama, Greenland and Canada have bred distrust of the United States in Europe. 'What president ever talks like that?' Biden said. 'That's not who we are. We're about freedom, democracy, opportunity — not about confiscation.' Trump has long dismissed the war in Ukraine as a waste of lives and American taxpayer money. Early in his presidency, Trump ordered a pause in American aid to Ukraine — then resumed it. The two countries last week signed an agreement granting American access to Ukraine's vast mineral resources — a return on investment, Trump suggested, that could pave the way for more U.S. aid. He has also said that Crimea, a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, 'will stay with Russia.' Biden said he worried that relations between the U.S. and Europe was eroding under Trump, with NATO member nations reconsidering whether they trust the U.S. 'Europe is going to lose confidence in the certainty of America and the leadership of America,' Biden told the BBC. The continent's leaders, he added, were asking: ''Can I rely on the United States? Are they going to be there?'' Of special concern, Biden said, was the administration's proposal to let Russia keep some Ukrainian territory in an effort to strike a peace deal that would put an end to fighting. Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Sign up for The Warm-Up 'It is modern-day appeasement,' Biden said. Biden said Trump's thrashing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February was 'beneath America.' 'I don't understand how they fail to understand that there's strength in alliances,' Biden said of the Trump administration on Monday. Asked about Trump's triumphant celebration of his first 100 days in office, Biden replied that he'll let history render the judgement. 'I don't see anything that was triumphant,' he said.
