WASHINGTON: US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson combined praise for NATO with a call for members to meet their targeted annual spending of at least 2 percent of GDP on defense in his first major foreign policy speech as the chamber’s Republican leader.
“I just want to say this, and I’ll deliver the message to them emphatically: Republicans, of course, celebrate the peace and prosperity that NATO has secured and will continue to stand by our partners as we prevent needless wars,” the Republican House leader said at the Hudson Institute think tank.
“But we also believe that NATO needs to be doing more,” he said, as members of the military alliance gathered for this week’s summit in Washington, which will include meetings with members of the US Congress.
Johnson also took a hard line on China, calling it “our single greatest threat... engaging in malign influence operations around the world.”
He said the House will vote on a series of bills to counter China this year, including beefed up sanctions and efforts to clamp down on trade policies seen as harmful to US interests.
Defense spending by NATO members has become a highly contentious issue in recent times as former President Donald Trump accuses Europeans of spending too little on their own security and relying on Washington for protection.
Earlier this year, Trump — the Republican candidate in the Nov. 5 US presidential election — sparked outrage by suggesting he would not protect NATO members that failed to spend enough on defense and would even encourage Russia to attack them.
Johnson is a close ally of Trump and, as speaker, sets the legislative agenda for the House.
Months after Democratic President Joe Biden asked the House to approve funding for Ukraine, Johnson changed course this year to allow the House to vote on — and pass — billions of dollars in additional aid to the country.
Johnson said people have come up to him at events all over the country and thanked him for passing the funding. “People understand that (Russian President Vladimir Putin) would not stop if he took Kyiv. He’s a ruthless dictator in my view,” Johnson said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last month that more than 20 NATO members will meet the alliance’s target of allocating at least 2 percent of GDP to defense this year, compared with fewer than 10 members five years ago.
US House Speaker Johnson to ‘emphatically’ demand more from NATO allies
https://arab.news/b8jj9
US House Speaker Johnson to ‘emphatically’ demand more from NATO allies
- Johnson is a close ally of Trump and, as speaker, sets the legislative agenda for the House
Taiwan cabinet to ask parliament to unfreeze $4bn amid budget standoff
- Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee says the government will ask parliament to unfreeze T$138.1 billion ($4.25 billion) in funds
- Cabinet will also seek a legal interpretation from the constitutional court on both the constitutionality of the budget as passed by lawmakers
TAIPEI: Taiwan’s cabinet said on Tuesday it will ask the opposition controlled legislature to release more than $4 billion in funds frozen as part of a stand-off over this year’s budget, which the government says could seriously affect their operations.
While the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Lai Ching-te won the presidency in last year’s elections, the party lost its majority in parliament.
Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), along with the small Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), control the most seats, and earlier this year voted through sweeping cuts to 2025’s budget, saying they were targeting waste, and froze other funds saying they wanted greater oversight on spending plans.
In a statement, cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee said the government will ask parliament to unfreeze T$138.1 billion ($4.25 billion) in funds.
The cabinet “hopes the Legislative Yuan can unfreeze it all in a short period of time to reduce the difficulties and inconveniences people have in their dealings with the administration,” Lee said, using parliament’s formal name.
The cabinet will also seek a legal interpretation from the constitutional court on both the constitutionality of the budget as passed by lawmakers, and a separate legal amendment granting more money to local governments at the expense of the central government, Lee added.
The defense ministry has warned of a “serious impact” to security from the amended budget, saying it will require a cut in defense spending of some T$80 billion at a time when the island is facing an elevated Chinese military threat.
Taiwan’s opposition has shown little appetite to seek compromise with the government on the budget issue, given they are angered at a campaign led by civic groups and backed by senior DPP officials to recall a swathe of opposition lawmakers.
The KMT and TPP chairmen met earlier on Tuesday vowing to redouble efforts to work together against the “green communists,” referring to the DPP’s party colors, and will hold a joint protest in front of the presidential office on Saturday.
“We don’t just want to take down Lai Ching-te, but the entire corrupt, arrogant and abusive system,” KMT Chairman Eric Chu wrote on his Facebook page after meeting TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang.
Lai and the DPP’s public approval ratings have remained relatively high.
A poll last week by Taiwan television station Mirror TV put the DPP’s approval rating at 45 percent, relatively steady over the past year, with both the KMT and TPP on around 28 percent, both down compared with the year ago period.
Fleeing Pakistan, Afghans rebuild from nothing
- Pushed out of Pakistan where she was born, Nazmine Khan’s first experience of her country, Afghanistan, was in a sweltering tent at a border camp
TORKHAM: Pushed out of Pakistan where she was born, Nazmine Khan’s first experience of her country, Afghanistan, was in a sweltering tent at a border camp.
“We never thought we would return to Afghanistan,” said the 15-year-old girl, who has little idea of what will become of her or her family, only that she is likely to have fewer freedoms.
“When our parents told us we had to leave, we cried,” added Khan.
Having nowhere to go in Afghanistan, she and six other family members shared a stifling tent in the Omari camp near the Torkham border point.
Islamabad, accusing Afghans of links to narcotics and “supporting terrorism,” announced a new campaign in March to expel hundreds of thousands of Afghans, with or without documents.
Many had lived in Pakistan for decades after fleeing successive wars and crises but did not wait to be arrested by Pakistani forces before leaving, seeing their removal as inevitable.
Since April 1, more than 92,000 Afghans have been sent back to their country of origin, according to Islamabad, out of the some three million the United Nations says are living in Pakistan.
Khan’s family fled Afghanistan in the 1960s. Her four brothers and sister were also born in Pakistan.
“In a few days we’ll look for a place to rent” in the border province of Nangarhar where the family has roots, she told AFP, speaking in Pakistan’s commonly spoken tongue of Urdu, not knowing any Afghan languages.
In the family’s tent there is little more than a cloth to lie on and a few cushions, but no mattress or blanket. Flies buzz under the tarpaulin as countless children in ragged clothes come and go.
When it comes to her own future, Khan feels “completely lost,” she said.
Having dropped out of school in Pakistan, the Taliban authorities’ ban on girls studying beyond primary school will hardly change the course of her life.
But from what little she heard about her country while living in eastern Pakistan’s Punjab, she knows that “here there are not the same freedoms.”
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban authorities have imposed restrictions on women characterised by the UN as “gender apartheid.”
Women have been banned from universities, parks, gyms and beauty salons and squeezed from many jobs.
“It is now a new life... for them, and they are starting this with very little utilities, belongings, cash, support,” said Ibrahim Humadi, program lead for non-governmental group Islamic Relief, which has set up about 200 tents for returnees in the Omari camp.
Some stay longer than the three days offered on arrival, not knowing where to go with their meager savings, he said.
“They also know that even in their area of return, the community will be welcoming them, will be supporting them... but they know also the community are already suffering from the situation in Afghanistan,” he added.
Around 85 percent of the Afghan population lives on less than one dollar a day, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
“We had never seen (Afghanistan) in our lives. We do not know if we can find work, so we are worried,” said Jalil Khan Mohamedin, 28, as he piled belongings — quilts, bed frames and fans — into a truck that will take the 16 members of his family to the capital Kabul, though nothing awaits them there.
The Taliban authorities have said they are preparing towns specifically for returnees.
But at one site near Torkham, there is nothing more than cleared roads on a rocky plain.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) believes “greater clarity” is needed to ensure that the sites intended for returnees are “viable” in terms of basic infrastructure and services such as health and education.
It’s important that “returnees are making informed decisions and that their relocation to the townships is voluntary,” communications officer Avand Azeez Agha told AFP.
Looking dazed, Khan’s brother Dilawar still struggles to accept leaving Pakistan, where he was born 25 years ago.
His Pakistani wife did not want to follow him and asked for a divorce.
“When we crossed the border, we felt like going back, then after a day it felt fine,” said the former truck driver.
“We still don’t understand. We were only working.”
‘A true father to us’ – Filipinos mourn Pope Francis
- Grief palpable in one of the world’s largest Catholic strongholds
- Francis known affectionately in the Philippines as ‘Lolo Kiko’
MANILA: Hundreds of Filipinos gathered at a solemn Mass held for Pope Francis on Tuesday, following his passing that has stirred deep sorrow among Catholics around the world, many of whom saw him as a humble and compassionate leader.
In one of the world’s largest Catholic strongholds, the grief was palpable as worshippers filled churches to honor the pontiff, known affectionately in the Philippines as “Lolo Kiko,” or Grandpa Kiko.
One of the chapels inside the Manila Cathedral displayed a framed photo of the Argentine pope surrounded by flowers and candles, as prayers for his eternal repose and solemn hymns sung by the choir echoed through the church.
“Lolo Kiko was a true father to us,” said Cardinal Jose Advincula, the archbishop of Manila, during the morning Mass he led at the cathedral. Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, died on Monday after suffering a stroke and cardiac arrest, the Vatican said, ending an often turbulent reign in which he sought to overhaul an ancient and divided institution. The Philippines, home to more than 80 million Catholics, has long had a special connection with Francis, who visited the country in 2015, drawing a record crowd of up to seven million people at a historic Mass in the capital.
In his homily, the pope urged Filipinos to shun “social structures which perpetuate poverty, ignorance and corruption.”
Francis’ journey included a visit to Tacloban, where he met with survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, the deadliest storm in Philippine history.
Powerful force
Cardinal Advincula described the 2015 visit of Francis as “a moment of grace forever etched in our memory.” Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, a Catholic, described Francis as the “best pope in my lifetime” as he expressed deep sorrow over his passing.
As the Church prepares for a new conclave, attention has turned to what could be a historic shift – one the possible candidates to succeed Pope Francis is Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle. Tagle, 67 is often called the “Asian Francis” because of his similar commitment to social justice and if elected he would be the first pontiff from Asia, where only the Philippines and East Timor have majority Catholic populations.
On paper, Tagle, who generally prefers to be called by his nickname “Chito,” seems to have all the boxes ticked to qualify him to be a pope.
He has had decades of pastoral experience since his ordination to the priesthood in 1982. He then gained administrative experience, first as bishop of Imus and then as archbishop of Manila.
Palestinian protest leader detained by US misses son’s birth
- Trump’s advisers have accused pro-Palestinian protesters of promoting anti-Semitism and terrorism, charges the activists deny
NEW YORK: Detained pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil missed the birth of his son on Monday after US authorities refused a temporary release, his wife said.
A graduate student at New York’s Columbia University who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, Khalil was arrested by immigration authorities on March 8.
He was ordered deported even though he was a permanent US resident through his American citizen wife, Noor Abdalla.
Abdalla said that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) denied a request to release Khalil temporarily for the birth of their child.
“This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud and our son suffer,” she said in a statement.
“My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud. ICE and the Trump administration have stolen these precious moments from our family in an attempt to silence Mahmoud’s support for Palestinian freedom,” she said.
She gave birth in New York. Khalil was transferred to the southern state of Louisiana in an apparent bid to find a judge sympathetic to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Trump’s advisers have accused pro-Palestinian protesters of promoting anti-Semitism and terrorism, charges the activists deny.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a law approved during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the United States to remove foreigners seen as adverse to US foreign policy.
Rubio argues that US constitutional protections of free speech do not apply to foreigners and that he alone can make decisions without judicial review.
Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records.
Immigration authorities last week arrested another Columbia University student active in the protests, Mohsen Mahdawi, as he attended an interview seeking to become a US citizen.
‘Disruptor’ Hegseth’s unsettled Pentagon starts turning against him
- That request followed revelations last month that Hegseth had shared in a Signal chat group that accidentally included a journalist plans to kill a Houthi militant leader in Yemen two hours before the start of U.S. air strikes
WASHINGTON: Pete Hegseth wanted to make waves at the Pentagon. But less than 90 days since being sworn in as U.S. defense secretary, he appears put off balance by the very turbulence he himself created.
An ex-Fox News host, Hegseth on Monday accused his former trusted advisers of turning against him following revelations that he texted sensitive U.S. military strike plans from his personal phone to his wife, brother, attorney and others.
"What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and a bunch of hit pieces come out," Hegseth said on the White House lawn, his children standing behind him, for an Easter celebration.
HIGHLIGHTS
• White House says Pentagon working against Hegseth
• Hegseth has accused his former advisers of turning against him
• Trump has stood by Hegseth
• Democratic lawmakers call for Hegseth to resign
The White House saw a conspiracy against Hegseth stretching far beyond the small cadre of his once loyal aides, who were fired after accusations they leaked sensitive information, to include the Department of Defense itself.
Hegseth has moved with stunning speed to reshape the department, firing top generals and admirals as he seeks to implement President Donald Trump's national security agenda and root out diversity initiatives he says are discriminatory.
"This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change that you are trying to implement," said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
So far, Trump himself is standing firmly by Hegseth, saying he was "doing a great job."
"He was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people. And that is what he is doing," Trump told reporters on Monday.
The latest controversy comes after the dismissal of aides brought to the Pentagon by the Trump administration, firings triggered by a leak investigation ordered by Hegseth's chief of staff on March 21.
The dismissed aides include Dan Caldwell, a longtime colleague of Hegseth's who became one of his most trusted advisors. He was escorted out of the Pentagon last week over leaks for which he denies responsibility. Also dismissed was Hegseth's deputy chief of staff, Darin Selnick.
"TOTAL CHAOS"
John Ullyot, who was ousted from his job as a Pentagon spokesperson after two months, said Hegseth's Defense Department was in "total chaos."
"Hegseth is now presiding over a strange and baffling purge that will leave him without his two closest advisers of over a decade — Caldwell and Selnick — and without chiefs of staff for him and his deputy," Ullyot wrote in a blistering opinion piece published on Sunday in Politico.
Ullyot concluded that Trump should fire Hegseth, saying: "The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership."
Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., slammed Ullyot for the remarks, saying on X that "he's officially exiled from our movement."
The latest upheaval at the Pentagon comes amid a widening purge of national security officials by the Trump administration that has reached every level of U.S. military leadership, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top Navy admiral and the military's top lawyers.
It has also included lower-ranking officials, like Colonel Susan Myers, the commander of a U.S. Space Force base in Greenland, who was fired earlier this month.
An email she wrote appeared to question Vice President JD Vance's assertions during a March visit to Greenland, where he accused Denmark of failing to protect the island from "very aggressive incursions from Russia, and from China and other nations."
A U.S. defense official said the Pentagon, because of the presence of uniformed military officials, was an institution that under normal circumstances could run itself with basic policy guidance from elected officials.
But the confusion surrounding the building's leadership was starting to erode that ability, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Another official said the firings of military officials by Hegseth and those removed as a part of the leak investigation had created a climate of uncertainty within the Pentagon.
The official added that it appeared that at times Hegseth was more focused on minor issues that gain traction on social media among his conservative base rather than clearly communicating national security policies.
Hegseth only narrowly won Senate confirmation. Many lawmakers expressed concern about his temperament and lack of experience, with three Republican senators voting against him.
Senator Roger Wicker, a Hegseth supporter and the Republican who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee, has requested an investigation by the Pentagon's independent inspector into Hegseth's use of Signal.
That request followed revelations last month that Hegseth had shared in a Signal chat group that accidentally included a journalist plans to kill a Houthi militant leader in Yemen two hours before the start of U.S. air strikes. Wicker has yet to react to the latest news about a second Signal chat.
A White House official said that abandoning Hegseth would play into the hands of Democrats in Congress. They are increasingly calling for Hegseth to step down.
"Hegseth has turned the Pentagon into a place of chaos," said Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin.
"If he cared about the institution he's leading, he should man up, acknowledge he's a distraction to the military's mission, and resign."
