Trump says Spain could be expelled from NATO, hints at more Russia sanctions
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the NATO alliance should consider expelling Spain from the bloc and that his administration may impo...
Estonia’s defense minister Hanno Pevkur says the U.S. will keep its 80,000 troops in Europe, calling bases like Ramstein and Naples crucial to NATO’s eastern shield and American power projection despite Washington’s growing Indo-Pacific focus.
The United States may shift some of its forces toward the Indo-Pacific, but the value of its European footprint for guarding NATO’s eastern flank and projecting global power makes a full pull-out unlikely, Estonia’s defence minister Hanno Pevkur told Reuters on Monday.
Pevkur said there has been no talk inside NATO of reducing the roughly 80,000 U.S. troops stationed on the continent, even though Washington has signaled it wants to devote more attention to Asia. “I do not believe the U.S. will withdraw its troops from Europe,” he said.
In February, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told allies that “stark strategic realities” prevent America from concentrating primarily on Europe’s security—remarks that, along with Donald Trump’s warnings about shielding low-spending allies and his hesitation over continued aid to Ukraine, have unsettled European capitals. Still, Pevkur noted that Hegseth also reaffirmed NATO’s importance to Washington, which “means you need to be present.”
Large U.S. installations such as Naval Support Activity Naples and Ramstein Air Base remain critical to American global operations, Pevkur added, while U.S. units have rotated almost constantly through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Baltic states, annexed by the Soviet Union in the 1940s and alarmed by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, see the U.S. presence as essential. Estonia plans to raise defence spending to about 5.4 percent of GDP within four years—well above the NATO average of 2 percent. Pevkur argues Europe needs to hit roughly 4 percent to rebuild its military strength, but he doubts that target will emerge from NATO’s June summit, given heavy debt burdens and less urgency in countries far from Russia.
Trump has urged allies to commit 5 percent of GDP, while NATO’s incoming Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, says new capability goals point to spending “north of” 3 percent.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that no one would be forced to leave Gaza under the U.S. ceasefire plan, and that the agreement was “all finalised and done” as he prepared for a planned trip to the region.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the NATO alliance should consider expelling Spain from the bloc and that his administration may impose additional sanctions on Russia.
Several explosions and bursts of gunfire were reported in Kabul late Thursday, according to local media and residents, with the cause and possible casualties still unclear.
A French court on Thursday rejected the appeal of a former construction worker found guilty last year of the aggravated rape of Gisele Pelicot, and increased his prison sentence by a year to 10 years, his lawyer said.
President Donald Trump has said that hostages should be released Monday or Tuesday at a cabinet meeting held in the White House on Thursday.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment