Search form

You are here

  • Home
  • Harris says Trump ‘is a fascist’ after John Kelly says he wanted generals like Hitler’s


Harris says Trump ‘is a fascist’ after John Kelly says he wanted generals like Hitler’s

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shows videos of US Vice President and democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris during a campaign event at Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia, on October 23, 2024. (AFP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/vz6bn

Updated 24 October 2024
AP
Follow

Harris says Trump ‘is a fascist’ after John Kelly says he wanted generals like Hitler’s

  • John Kelly, a retired general, warned in interviews that Trump meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office he suggested that Hitler “did some good things”
  • Harris, the vice president and Democratic nominee, repeated her increasingly dire warnings about Trump’s mental fitness and his intentions for the presidency
Updated 24 October 2024
AP

ASTON, Pennsylvania: Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she believes that Donald Trump “is a fascist” after his longest-serving chief of staff said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office and put personal loyalty above the Constitution.
Harris seized on comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, about his former boss in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published Tuesday warning that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office he suggested that the Nazi leader “did some good things.”
Speaking at a CNN town hall, Harris said they offer a window into who the former president “really is” and the kind of commander in chief he would be.
When asked if she believed that Trump is a fascist, Harris replied twice, “Yes, I do.” Later, she brought it up herself, saying Trump would, if elected again, be “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
The Democratic presidential nominee said Kelly’s comments, less than two weeks before voters will decide whether to send Trump back to the Oval Office, were a “911 call to the American people” by the former chief of staff. They were quickly seized by Harris as part of her closing message to voters as she works to sharpen the choice at the ballot box for Americans.
“I believe Donald Trump is a danger to the well-being and security of the United States of America,” she said, saying the American people deserve a president who maintains “certain standards,” which include “certainly not comparing oneself, in a clearly admiring way, to Hitler.”
She added that if reelected, Trump would no longer be tempered by people who would “restrain him” from his worst impulses.
Earlier Wednesday, Harris repeated her increasingly dire warnings about Trump’s mental fitness and his intentions for the presidency.
“This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who have worked with him side by side in the Oval Office and in the Situation Room,” Harris told reporters outside the vice president’s residence in Washington.

 

The comments from Kelly, the retired Marine general who worked for Trump in the White House from 2017 to 2019, built on past warnings from former top Trump officials as the election enters its final two weeks.
Kelly has long been critical of Trump and previously accused him of calling veterans killed in combat “suckers” and “losers.” His new warnings emerged as Trump seeks a second term vowing to dramatically expand his use of the military at home and suggesting he would use force to go after Americans he considers “enemies from within.”
“He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,’” Kelly recalled to the Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.”
Trump said on his Truth Social media platform that Kelly had “made up a story” and went on to heap insults on his former chief of staff, including that Kelly’s “toughness morphed into weakness.”
Trump’s campaign also denied the accounts. Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said Kelly had “beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated” and, after Harris’ statement, accused the Democratic candidate of sharing “outright lies and falsehoods.”
Chris Sununu, New Hampshire’s Republican governor and onetime Trump critic, said Kelly’s comments did not change his plans to vote for the former president.
“Look, we’ve heard a lot of extreme things about Donald Trump, from Donald Trump. It’s really par for the course,” the governor told CNN. “Unfortunately, with a guy like that, it’s kind of baked into the vote at this point.”
Some of the former president’s supporters in swing states responded to Kelly’s comments with a shrug.
“Trump did his four years, and we were in great shape. Kelly didn’t have anything good to say about Trump. He ought to have his butt kicked,” said Jim Lytner, a longtime advocate for veterans in Nevada who served in the Army in Vietnam and co-founded the nonprofit Veterans Transition Resource Center.
Harris said Wednesday that Trump admired Hitler’s generals because he “does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution, he wants a military that is loyal to him. He wants a military who will be loyal to him personally.”
Polls show the race is tight in swing states, and both Trump and Harris are crisscrossing the country making their final pitches to the sliver of undecided voters. Harris’ campaign has spent considerable time reaching out to independent voters, using the support of longtime Republicans such as former Rep. Liz Cheney and comments like Kelly’s to urge past Trump voters to reject his candidacy in November.
Harris’ campaign held a call with reporters Tuesday to elevate the voices of retired military officials who highlighted how many of the officials who worked with Trump now oppose his campaign.
“People that know him best are most opposed to him, his presidency,” said retired Army Brig. Gen. Steve Anderson.
Anderson said he wished Kelly would fully back Harris over Trump, something he has yet to do. But retired Army Reserve Col. Kevin Carroll, a former senior counselor to Kelly, said Wednesday that the former top Trump official would “rather chew broken glass than vote for Donald Trump.”
Before serving as Trump’s chief of staff, Kelly worked as the former president’s secretary of homeland security, where he oversaw Trump’s attempts to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Kelly was also at the forefront of the administration’s crackdown in immigration policy that led to the separation of thousands of immigrant parents and their children along the southern border. Those actions made him a villain to many on the left, including Harris.
After Kelly left the Trump administration and joined the board of a company operating the nation’s largest detention center for unaccompanied migrant children, Harris wrote during her 2019 run for president that he was “the architect” of the administration’s “cruel child separation policy. Now he will profit off the separation of families. It’s unethical. We are better than this.”
When she was in Miami for a primary debate in June 2019, Harris was also one of a dozen Democratic presidential candidates who visited the detention center south of the city and protested against the administration’s harsh treatment of young migrants.
In his interview with the Times, Kelly also said Trump met the definition of a fascist. After reading the definition aloud, including that fascism was “a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader,” Kelly concluded Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure.”
Kelly added that Trump often fumed at any attempt to constrain his power, and that “he would love to be” a dictator.
“He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly told the Times, adding later, “I think he’d love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”
Kelly is not the first former top Trump administration official to cast the former president as a threat.
Retired Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Bob Woodward in his recent book “War” that Trump was “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” And retired Gen. Jim Mattis, who worked as secretary of defense under Trump, reportedly later told Woodward that he agreed with Milley’s assessment.
Throughout Trump’s political rise, the businessman-turned-politician benefited from the support of military veterans.
AP VoteCast found that about 6 in 10 military veterans said they voted for Trump in 2020, as did just over half of those with a veteran in the household. Among voters in this year’s South Carolina Republican primary, AP VoteCast found that close to two-thirds of military veterans and people in veteran households voted for Trump over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s toughest opponent in the 2024 Republican primary.

Topics: Trump Returns Kamala Harris Donald Trump Scott Kelly

Related

World
Trump meets definition of a fascist, his former chief of staff says
Update
World
Nearly 25 million votes already cast as Harris, Trump hit battleground states

A single day of Trump and Musk’s cost-cutting campaign remakes huge sections of government

Updated 5 sec ago
AP
Follow

A single day of Trump and Musk’s cost-cutting campaign remakes huge sections of government

  • Some changes appeared designed to increase political control over agencies that have historically operated with some degree of autonomy
  • Other directives increased burdens on federal workers, who have already endured insults, layoffs and threats from the president and other top officials
Updated 5 sec ago
AP

WASHINGTON: A series of decisions revealed Friday provided a glimpse of the turmoil engulfing federal agencies since President Donald Trump and Elon Musk launched their campaign of disruption, upending how government functions in ways big and small.
Some changes appeared designed to increase political control over agencies that have historically operated with some degree of autonomy, such as requiring Environmental Protection Agency officials to seek approval from the Department of Government Efficiency for any contracts exceeding $50,000.
Other directives increased burdens on federal workers, who have already endured insults, layoffs and threats from the president and other top officials. For example, government credit cards issued to civilian employees at the Pentagon were altered to have a $1 limit, choking off their ability to travel for work.
The Transportation Security Administration became another target. The administration canceled a collective bargaining agreement with 47,000 workers who screen travelers and luggage at airports around the country, eliminating union protections in a possible prelude to layoffs or privatization.
The cascading developments are only a fraction of the upheaval that’s taken place since Trump took office, but they still reshaped how hundreds of thousands of public servants do their jobs, with potentially enduring consequences. The ongoing shakeup is much more intense than the typical whiplash that Washington endures when one administration gives way to another, raising fundamental questions about how government will function under a president who has viewed civil servants as an obstacle to his agenda.
The White House has wrestled with political blowback over Musk’s role and legal challenges that have tried to block or slow down his work. Republicans who are facing growing pressure in contentious town halls have started to speak up.
“I will fully admit, I think Elon Musk has tweeted first and thought second sometimes,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Michigan, during a virtual meeting with constituents on Friday. “He has plunged ahead without necessarily knowing and understanding what he legally has to do or what he is going to be doing.”
Mistakes are being made
The overhaul of the federal government is happening at lightning speed, reflecting years of preparation by Trump’s allies and the president’s decision to grant Musk sweeping influence over his administration. Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur with no previous experience in public service, has shown no interest in slowing down despite admitting that he’ll make mistakes in his crusade to slash spending and downsize the workforce.
The government is facing even more dramatic changes in the coming weeks and months. Trump has directed agencies to prepare plans for widespread layoffs, known as reductions in force, that will likely require more limited operations at agencies that provide critical services.
The Department of Veterans Affairs could shed 80,000 employees, while the Internal Revenue Service and the Social Security Administration are considering plans that would cut their workforces in half.
Trump has vowed not to reduce Social Security benefits, but Democrats argue that layoffs would make it harder to deliver payments to 72.5 million people, including retirees and children.
There are also concerns that politics could interfere with Social Security. Trump has feuded over transgender issues with Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, and his administration recently said children born in the state would no longer have a Social Security number assigned at birth. Instead, parents would have to apply for one at a local office.
Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of Social Security, rescinded the order on Friday.
“In retrospect, I realize that ending these contracts created an undue burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intent,” he said in a statement. Dudek added that “as a leader, I will admit my mistakes and make them right.”
A startup mindset takes hold
More than a month after Trump took office, there’s still confusion about Musk’s authority. In public statements and legal filings, administration officials have insisted that Musk does not actually run DOGE and has no direct authority over budgets.
But Trump has contradicted both statements. He said Tuesday that DOGE is “headed by Elon Musk” in a prime-time speech to a joint session of Congress, and he said Thursday that “Elon will do the cutting” if agency leaders don’t reduce their spending.
Their approach has energized people like David Sacks, a venture capitalist serving as a Trump adviser on cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence, who praised the administration as moving “faster than any startup that I’ve been part of.”
Trump denied reports of friction between Musk and Cabinet officials, particularly Secretary of State Marco Rubio, during a meeting Thursday.
“Elon gets along great with Marco,” the president said. The State Department had no immediate comment.
Norm Eisen, executive chair of State Democracy Defenders Fund, an organization that has been suing the Trump administration, said the president “made clear that Musk and DOGE have been calling the shots.”
Musk serves as a presidential adviser, not a Senate-confirmed official, which Eisen argued makes his role unconstitutional. He said Trump’s comments are “an admission that the vast chaos that Musk and DOGE have wrought without proper approval and documentation is illegal — and so must be completely unwound.”
Trump is using executive orders to reshape government
Many of the changes sweeping through Washington were ignited by Trump’s executive orders. One order issued last week said agencies must develop new systems for distributing and justifying payments so they can be monitored by DOGE representatives.
The EPA distributed guidance intended to ensure compliance.
“Any assistance agreement, contract or interagency agreement transaction (valued at) $50,000 or greater must receive approval from an EPA DOGE team member,” said the documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said the involvement of Musk’s “unvetted, inexperienced team raises serious concerns about improper external influence on specialized agency decision-making.”
Republicans have shied away from holding town hall meetings with constituents after critics started using them to vent their frustration.
Some protesters gathered outside Huizenga’s district office in Holland, Michigan, calling on him to answer questions in person.
“I would like to ask him why he thinks that someone like Musk can go in and simply blow up agencies without seemingly even knowing what they’re doing,” said Linda Visscher, a Holland resident.
She said increasing the efficiency of government was a good idea, but she doesn’t agree with “just taking the blowtorch to it.”
 

Topics: Trump Returns DOGE Elon Musk

Related

Sport
Trump will lead task force preparing for 2026 World Cup

Phone bans sweep US schools despite skepticism

Updated 13 min 48 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Phone bans sweep US schools despite skepticism

Updated 13 min 48 sec ago
AFP

ALEXANDRIA, United States: At a red-brick school in Virginia, Hayden Jones is one of 1,000 students banned from using their phones as part of a trial hoping to boost learning.
But the 12-year-old’s verdict on the restrictions — a shrug of his shoulders — reflects the skepticism shared by some students and parents.
The phone ban at Twain Middle School is among a wave of measures implemented around the United States, and is part of a global movement replicated in Brazil, France and beyond.
Supporters believe restrictions will guard pupils from the apparent harms of smartphone use while at school, but opponents say the measures fail to prepare teenagers for the digital world they will inevitably enter.
Since September, Jones must now place his Android phone in a magnetic pouch each morning, which is locked until the end of the school day as part of a pilot scheme this academic year.
Jones, speaking to AFP in a corridor lined with classrooms, said he hopes the ban will be gone by the time he starts eighth grade in September.
“I like being able to go to my locker and call my parents. That’s a big concern for me,” he said, adding that some pupils have found ways to still use their devices — including by bringing a “dummy phone” to put in the pouch.
School principal Matthew Mough admitted that enforcing the ban — and winning over students — has proved challenging, though he said most follow the rules.
“The majority of kids who have phones don’t love it,” he said. “However, if you dig deeper with them in the conversation, they will acknowledge that it’s helped them remain focused.”
Mough said the phone ban has reduced classroom distractions, cyberbullying and instances of students meeting up to skip lessons.

Eighth-grader Ja’ Nae Dorsey (R) unlocks her cell phone pouch after school followed by her twin sister La’ Mae Dorsey (L) and 7th-grader Hayden Jones (C) at Mark Twain Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 6, 2025. (AFP)

Cell phone bans come alongside research suggesting that social media use increases the likelihood of mental illnesses like anxiety and depression in young people.
Advocacy groups regularly cite these studies as justification for school phone bans, which have seen rare political consensus in a nation deeply divided on virtually every other political issue.
Around 76 percent of US public schools — from liberal California to conservative Florida — had some sort of ban on non-academic phone use, according to the latest Department of Education figures, with several state-wide measures also in place or under consideration.
They are largely backed by teachers, with the National Education Association saying 90 percent of its members support policies banning phones during lessons.
“The biggest problem is that kids aren’t in a place developmentally where they’re able to handle the type of technology that we’re talking about,” said Sabine Polak, co-founder of the Phone-Free Schools Movement, which backs full-scale phone bans.
Critics of the restrictions argue that educating children about the potential risks of social media and smartphone use is better than prohibition.
“The answer is not to just ban and put our heads in the sand,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, which represents over 1,000 parent organizations in the United States.
She compared efforts to ban phones to “abstinence education,” noting that failing to properly teach children about complicated issues such as sex has failed in the past.
“It’s not effective, and frankly, it’s dumb,” Rodrigues told AFP. “What we need to do is equip our kids with the information, with the skills and the strategies they’re going to need to navigate a digital future.”
At the school in Virginia, Jones said the phone ban has not changed how he interacts with his device, still using it for games, social media and watching YouTube videos.
His one complaint about his phone? “Nothing really, honestly, I mean besides the fact that it weighs a ton in my pocket.”
 

Related

World
France bans mobile phones in schools
Saudi Arabia
Decision to ban mobile phones at Saudi schools hailed

Trump denies reported Musk-Rubio clash in cabinet meeting

Updated 30 min 3 sec ago
Agencies
Follow

Trump denies reported Musk-Rubio clash in cabinet meeting

  • But stresses that cabinet secretaries will now take the lead on staffing choices, implying that he had taken the opportunity to rein Musk in
  • Also insists that cuts be made with a “scalpel” instead of a “hatchet,” in reference to Musk's indiscriminate firing of federal employees
Updated 30 min 3 sec ago
Agencies

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump denied on Friday a report that his senior adviser, billionaire Elon Musk, had clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and another cabinet official during a White House meeting.

According to The New York Times, Musk argued with Rubio and separately with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy during a cabinet meeting chaired by Trump on Thursday.

Musk is leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a drive to slash costs and cut jobs across government departments, reportedly leading to tensions with department heads.

Musk reportedly faulted Rubio for having fired “nobody,” except for a staff member from Musk’s DOGE. He also told Rubio he was “good on TV,” as if to say he was not good for much else, the Times said.

An incensed Rubio lashed back at Musk for not being truthful. He countered that 1,500 State Department officials had accepted early retirement, and sarcastically asked whether he should hire them back just to sack them again more spectacularly.

In another exchange, Duffy accused DOGE of having tried to sack vital air traffic controllers right as he deals with the aftermath of several plane crashes, prompting Musk to accuse him of a “lie,” again according to the New York Times.

Trump reportedly intervened to halt the argument and suggest that henceforth the controllers be hired from the “geniuses” studying at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

After the meeting, Trump announced that cuts would continue but with a “scalpel” rather than a “hatchet,” implying that he had taken the opportunity to rein Musk in.

But, asked on Friday about the reported dispute, the president dismissed it.

“No clash, I was there, you’re just a troublemaker,” he told a reporter who asked about the report. 

He went on to insist of Musk and Rubio “they’re both doing a fantastic job ... they both get along fantastically well.”

Since coming to office, Trump’s administration has sacked or announced the departure of tens of thousands of federal employees in a scorched-earth efficiency drive.

Several US media have reported friction between Musk and senior officials, who accuse his young crew of DOGE officials — recruited from Silicon Valley — of exceeding their authority.

The meeting was convened following complaints about the Musk operation’s blunt-force approach from agency heads to top White House officials, including chief of staff Susie Wiles.

The White House Office of Legislative Affairs has been inundated with calls in recent days from frustrated Republican members of Congress all over the country, some of whom have faced anger from constituents at home.

(With AFP & Reuters)

Topics: Trump Returns Elon Musk Marco Rubio

Related

World
Elon Musk comes to Capitol Hill to meet with Republicans who discuss turning DOGE cuts into law
World
Musk says US government workers must explain their work week or lose jobs

DR Congo offers bounty for arrest of M23 leaders

Updated 08 March 2025
AFP
Follow

DR Congo offers bounty for arrest of M23 leaders

  • The M23, which, according to UN experts, is backed by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, resumed its fight against the government in Kinshasa in 2021 and has since seized swaths of territory in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda
Updated 08 March 2025
AFP

KINSHASA: Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are offering a $5-million reward for help in arresting leaders of the M23 group that recently captured two major northern towns, the Justice Ministry announced.
“A reward of $5 million is offered to any person who helps arrest the convicts Corneille Nangaa, Bertrand Bisimwa and Sultani Makenga,” the ministry said in a statement.
Nangaa, a leader in the River Congo Alliance, or AFC, a military-political coalition to which the M23 belongs, is a former president of the DRC’s electoral commission.
Bisimwa and Makenga are, respectively, the president and military chief of the M23.
Tried in absentia in Kinshasa, all three men were convicted and sentenced to death in August 2024.
DRC authorities are also offering a bounty of $4 million for any information leading to the arrest of the three men’s “accomplices on the run” and “other sought individuals,” the statement said.
The M23, which, according to UN experts, is backed by some 4,000 Rwandan soldiers, resumed its fight against the government in Kinshasa in 2021 and has since seized swaths of territory in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda.
A lightning offensive in recent weeks has captured the provincial capital, Goma, and Bukavu, the main cities in the neighboring province of South Kivu.
The DRC’s mineral-rich east has been ravaged for three decades by conflict and atrocities.
According to the Financial Times, the US is in exploratory talks with the DRC over a deal that would give Washington access to critical minerals in the country.
Congo approached the US last month, proposing a deal that would offer exploration rights to the US in exchange for support for the government of President Felix Tshisekedi, the newspaper reported, citing public documents.
Security sources said on Friday at least 35 people were killed when pro-government militia attacked a village in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,
The attack happened at about 3 a.m. on Thursday in the village of Tambi, in the Masisi area of North Kivu province controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group.
A security source said that at least 35 people were killed in the attack, while local sources and an eyewitness put the death toll at more than 40.
A community leader and a medical source said villagers had recently returned to the area after having fled fighting between the M23 and the Congolese army and local militia.
“The militia went to attack Tambi where residents had started to return ... they opened fire and civilians were killed,” said one community leader, who said 43 people died.
“They put some victims in a church and then shot them. Those who were in the fields were killed there.”
The community leader, a local health worker, and a local resident said another group of civilians sought refuge in a house and died when the militia set it on fire.
“We counted 47 bodies in the morning,” the resident said, adding that they were buried in a communal grave.
Some of the victims were unable to be identified because of their burns, he added.

 

Topics: DR Congo M23 rebel movement

Related

World
At least 23 killed in terror attack in DR Congo
World
UN Security Council urges Rwanda forces to leave DR Congo

Protesters on International Women’s Day demand equal rights, end to discrimination, sexual violence

Updated 08 March 2025
AP
Follow

Protesters on International Women’s Day demand equal rights, end to discrimination, sexual violence

  • On the Asian side of Turkiye’s biggest city Istanbul, a rally in Kadikoy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing
  • In many other European countries, women also protested against violence, for better access to gender-specific health care, equal pay and other issues
Updated 08 March 2025
AP

ISTANBUL: Women took to the streets of cities across Europe, Africa and elsewhere to mark International Women’s Day with demands for ending inequality and gender-based violence.
On the Asian side of Turkiye’s biggest city Istanbul, a rally in Kadikoy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing in the spring sunshine.
The colorful protest was overseen by a large police presence, including officers in riot gear and a water cannon truck.
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared 2025 the Year of the Family. Protesters pushed back against the idea of women’s role being confined to marriage and motherhood, carrying banners reading “Family will not bind us to life” and “We will not be sacrificed to the family.”
Critics have accused the government of overseeing restrictions on women’s rights and not doing enough to tackle violence against women.
Erdogan in 2021 withdrew Turkiye from a European treaty, dubbed the Istanbul Convention, that protects women from domestic violence. Turkiye’s We Will Stop Femicides Platform says 394 women were killed by men in 2024.
“There is bullying at work, pressure from husbands and fathers at home and pressure from patriarchal society. We demand that this pressure be reduced even further,” Yaz Gulgun, 52, said.
Women across Europe and Africa march against discrimination
In many other European countries, women also protested against violence, for better access to gender-specific health care, equal pay and other issues in which they don’t get the same treatment as men.
In Poland, activists opened a center across from the parliament building in Warsaw where women can go to have abortions with pills, either alone or with other women.
Opening the center on International Women’s Day across from the legislature was a symbolic challenge to authorities in the traditionally Roman Catholic nation, which has one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws.
From Athens to Madrid, Paris, Munich, Zurich and Belgrade and in many more cities across the continent, women marched to demand an end to treatment as second-class citizens in society, politics, family and at work.
In Madrid, protesters held up big hand-drawn pictures depicting Gisele Pélicot, the woman who was drugged by her now ex-husband in France over the course of a decade so that she could be raped by dozens of men while unconscious.
Pélicot has become a symbol for women all over Europe in the fight against sexual violence.
In the Nigerian capital of Lagos, thousands of women gathered at the Mobolaji Johnson Stadium, dancing and signing and celebrating their womanhood.
Many were dressed in purple — the traditional color of the women’s liberation movement.
In Russia, the women’s day celebrations had a more official tone, with honor guard soldiers presenting yellow tulips to girls and women during a celebration in St. Petersburg.
Germany’s president warns of backlash against progress already made
In Berlin, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for stronger efforts to achieve equality and warned against tendencies to roll back progress already made.
“Globally, we are seeing populist parties trying to create the impression that equality is something like a fixed idea of progressive forces,” he said. He gave an example of ” large tech companies that have long prided themselves on their modernity and are now, at the behest of a new American administration, setting up diversity programs and raving about a new ‘masculine energy’ in companies and society.”

Topics: International Women's Day Turkiye Europe

Related

Press Review
Pakistani women mark Int'l Women's Day with commitment for socio-economic development
Special
Business & Economy
International women's day: From train drivers to ice cream parlors — Saudi women take new jobs

Latest updates

Phone bans sweep US schools despite skepticism
Trump denies reported Musk-Rubio clash in cabinet meeting
Syria forces beef up security amid reports of mass killings of Alawites
With Hezbollah’s influence eroded, can Lebanon forge a brighter future?
Dembele hits double as PSG win ahead of Liverpool return

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.