Biden awards Pope Francis with highest civilian honor, Presidential Medal of Freedom, over the phone
President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to Pope Francis on Saturday. The medal was scheduled to be presented to the pope in person in Rome during what was to be Biden’s final overseas trip of his presidency, but Biden canceled his travel plans so he could monitor the wildfires in California. Instead, Biden bestowed the award on the pope during a phone call in which they also discussed efforts to promote peace and alleviate suffering around the world. “Pope Francis is unlike any who came before,” a White House announcement reads. “Above all, he is the People’s Pope – a light of faith, hope, and love that shines brightly across the world.” BIDEN’S MEDAL OF FREEDOM PICKS SHOW DEMOCRATS ARE ‘OUT OF TOUCH’ AND ‘TROLLING’ REPUBLICANS: COLUMNIST It was the first time during his four years in office that Biden awarded the medal “with distinction,” it said. Biden, 82, leaves office on Jan. 20. The lifelong Catholic is also a recipient of the award with distinction, recognized when he was vice president by then-President Barack Obama in a surprise ceremony eight years ago. That was the only time in Obama’s two terms when he awarded that version of the medal, according to the Associated Press. Both Biden and Francis have been weakened by global events, said Massimo Faggioli, an Italian academic and professor at Villanova University who follows the papacy. “That is really hard to underestimate how tragic this moment is for both men in different ways,” he said. “Because what could go wrong did go wrong in these few years.” The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
How strategic is Wad Madani city, retaken by Sudanese army?
PeoplSudan’s army has recaptured Wad Madani, a strategically important city some 200km (124 miles) southeast of the capital Khartoum, in a major blow to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). “The leadership of the Armed Forces congratulates our people on the entry of our forces into Wad Madani this morning. They are now working to clean up the remaining rebel pockets inside the city,” an army statement read. This comes as the army advanced into the country’s second-largest city Omdurman last week after making steady gains in recent months. Wad Madani – the crossroads of key supply highways linking several states – had been under RSF control since December 2023. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, however, insisted that the battle was not over. “Today we lost a round, we did not lose the battle,” said Dagalo, who is also known as Hemedti. Since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the army and the RSF over control of this North African nation, more than 12 million people have been displaced, creating one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. Advertisement So how significant is the recapture of Wad Madani by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)? Can the army repeat its recent success as it aims to recapture territories still under RSF control? How strategically placed is Wad Madani? Where is it located? The city is the capital of Gezira state, located in the centre of the country and south of Khartoum. According to Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, whoever has control of the agricultural and trading hub has easier access to other parts of the country. “When the RSF took over Wad Madani in December 2023, that gave it the ability to be able to move to other parts of the country such as Sennar in the southeast, Blue Nile in the east, and the White Nile in the south as well,” Morgan said, reporting from the Sudanese capital. The city is also at “a very important point” through which supplies and other “logistical arrangements” can be made into the capital, according to Hamid Khalafallah, a Sudan policy analyst and PhD candidate at the University of Manchester. “Whoever controls Madani [has] a lot more flexibility in terms of different stuff into Khartoum and out of Khartoum,” Khalafallah told Al Jazeera. In the early days of the conflict, before the RSF took over, the city was a safe haven for displaced families. Since the RSF’s takeover, it has been one of the sites of the paramilitary force’s bloodiest attacks on civilians, as well as the burning of fields, looting of hospitals and markets, and flooding of irrigation ditches. Has the Sudanese army captured the entire Gezira state? No, the RSF still retains control of most of the state, as well as nearly all of Sudan’s western Darfur region and large parts of the country’s south. Advertisement The army’s takeover of the strategic city follows its bolstered campaign to retake Gezira in recent months, after retaking Sennar state in the south. The army was helped by the turn of events in October, when RSF’s top commander in the state defected to the SAF. The commander’s troops took part in Saturday’s operations. Last week, the army advanced in the second-largest city Omdurman, capturing several areas from the RSF. How significant is the recapture of Wad Madani city? This represents a significant turn of events in the war and another blow to the RSF, which has had an upper hand against the military in the nearly two-year conflict. The army’s capture will allow it to access other parts of the country that the RSF will now be cut off from, such as the Sennar, Blue Nile, and White Nile states. “Now that [the RSF] lost that territory, that progress that it was able to make will not be possible, and its forces in those areas will be trapped between forces of the Sudanese army,” said Morgan. “Wad Madani is also where the army’s first infantry division is located, so that is going to give the army a morale boost,” she added. When the RSF took over the city, there were a lot of complaints among officers and soldiers that the leadership was not meeting the standards of the Sudanese army and that there should be a replacement of the leadership, explained Morgan. “Now that Wad Madani is back under the control of the Sudanese army, the army is likely to gain – especially its leadership – is likely to gain more support, not just from the soldiers and officers but also from the Sudanese citizens as well,” she said. Advertisement Additionally, the city’s recapture could aid in Sudan’s hunger crisis, as the state is home to Sudan’s most fertile lands and agriculture schemes – with most farming prohibited under the RSF, said Khalafallah, the researcher. “Now there will be room for people to grow, and to farm, and for food to be produced, and so on, to address Sudan’s unfolding famine and food security crisis,” he said. The turn of events may also offer long-awaited respite to the city’s residents, who “have been experiencing the most horrific human rights violations and atrocities committed by the [Rapid] Support Forces”, Khalafallah said. Still, there has been a pattern of the army targeting pro-democracy activists in the cities they have already recaptured, Khalafallah warned, which could be a worrying development if repeated in Wad Madani. How much territory does the army control now? Beyond Wad Madani, the Sudanese army also controls the north and east of the country, as well as parts of the capital. The map below indicates areas of control between the SAF and the RSF, as of October 2024. How did Sudanese people react to the capture? In Wad Madani, Sudanese troops garbed in camo-print uniforms waved their rifles in the air as they rode through town on the back of their trucks, flashing smiles after claiming to “liberate” the city, social media footage verified by Al Jazeera shows. The local resistance committee, one of hundreds
Russia claims to have seized new villages in eastern Ukraine
Russia claims it has captured two villages in eastern Ukraine where its forces have been steadily advancing for months, as Ukraine’s president urged allies to deliver all the weapons they have promised to send to Kyiv. The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday that soldiers have captured the village of Yantarne in the eastern Donetsk region, about 10km (six miles) southwest of Kurakhove, a key logistics hub that Moscow claimed to have seized last week – a day after Russia’s army said it had also taken new territory northwest of Kurakhove. The Defence Ministry added that soldiers had also captured the village of Kalinove in the northeastern Kharkiv region. The village is on the western bank of the Oskil River, which for a long time formed the front line between the two armies in the region. A Ukrainian official, quoted by the AFP news agency, said on Thursday that Russian forces had managed to establish a bridgehead on the western bank after crossing the river. Russia’s army has spent months making attempts to cross the river, which also cuts through Kupiansk, a city recaptured by Ukraine in its 2022 counteroffensive. Advertisement Separately, the Russian Defence Ministry said that over the past 24 hours, Russia’s forces have carried out strikes on Ukrainian military airfields, personnel and vehicles in 139 locations using the air force, drones, missiles and artillery. Ukrainian air defences downed 60 out of 94 drones launched by Russia overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. It said that 34 drones were “lost”, in reference to Ukraine’s use of electronic warfare to redirect Russian drones. Falling drone fragments damaged houses in the Kharkiv, Sumy and Poltava regions, but no one was hurt, the air force said. In the southern Kherson region, three people were injured by drones on Sunday, regional authorities said, and about 23,000 households were left without electricity after Russian shelling damaged power equipment in the city. The attack targeted the Dniprovskyi district along the Dnipro River, an area of Kherson that is regularly shelled by Russian forces on the opposite bank. Kherson’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Kherson city and about 50 settlements in the surrounding region had been shelled by Russian forces over the past 24 hours. “The Russian military shelled social infrastructure and residential areas of the region’s settlements, in particular, damaging two multistorey buildings and eight private houses,” Prokudin said on Telegram. In the Russian-controlled section of the Kherson region, a Ukrainian drone attacked a car, killing a 76-year-old woman outside her house, Russian-installed Governor Vladimir Saldo said on Telegram. Advertisement Zelenskyy appeals to allies In a statement on Sunday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on allies to honour all promises to supply Ukraine with weapons, including those to counter Russian air attacks. Zelenskyy said that over the past week, Russian forces had launched hundreds of attacks on Ukraine and nearly 700 aerial bombs and more than 600 attack drones were used. “Every week, the Russian war continues only because the Russian army retains its ability to terrorise Ukraine and exploit its superiority in the sky,” Zelenskyy said on the Telegram messaging app. “The decisions made at the NATO summit in Washington, as well as those adopted during the Ramstein meetings regarding air defences for Ukraine, have still not been fully implemented,” Zelenskyy said. Ukraine’s leader this week said he had discussed with partners and the United States the possibility of granting Ukraine licences to produce air defence systems and missiles. Task force for oil spill Meanwhile, Russian officials said an emergency task force arrived in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region on Sunday as an oil spill in the Kerch Strait from two storm-stricken tankers continues to spread a month after it was first detected. The task force, which includes Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov, was set up after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday called on authorities to ramp up the response to the spill, calling it “one of the most serious environmental challenges we have faced in recent years”. Advertisement Kurenkov said that “the most difficult situation” had developed near the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, where fuel oil continues to leak into the sea from the damaged part of the Volgoneft-239 tanker. Kurenkov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that the remaining oil will be pumped out of the tanker’s stern. In response to Putin’s call for action, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi accused Russia of “beginning to demonstrate its alleged ‘concern’ only after the scale of the disaster became too obvious to conceal its terrible consequences”. “Russia’s practice of first ignoring the problem, then admitting its inability to solve it, and ultimately leaving the entire Black Sea region alone with the consequences is yet another proof of its international irresponsibility,” Tykhyi said on Friday. The Kerch Strait is an important global shipping route, providing passage from the inland Sea of Azov to the Black Sea. It has also been a key point of conflict between Russia and Ukraine after Moscow annexed the peninsula in 2014. In 2016, Ukraine took Moscow to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, where it accused Russia of trying to seize control of the area illegally. In 2021, Russia closed the strait for several months. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy’s office, described the oil spill last month as a “large-scale environmental disaster” and called for additional sanctions on Russian tankers. Adblock test (Why?)
Fact check: LA fires drive falsehoods, including by Trump about water use
President-elect Donald Trump and some social media users and pundits blamed Los Angeles’ deadly fires on California Governor Gavin Newsom, saying the Democrat’s environmental policies enabled the blazes’ danger and wreckage. As of January 12, authorities counted at least 16 people dead, more than 14,000 hectares (35,000 acres) burned and thousands of structures damaged or destroyed. Some social media users reposted Trump’s 2018 and 2019 criticism of California’s forest management policies, including false statements the then-president posted as firefighters battled previous wildfires. It is not uncommon for Trump to make false claims about his political opponents during natural disasters. In 2018, he falsely said “Democrats” had inflated Hurricane Maria’s death toll in Puerto Rico. In October 2024, he fabricated a claim that North Carolina’s Democratic governor had blocked federal aid from flowing into the state after Hurricane Helene. As Los Angeles wildfire victims reeled from the destruction, we fact-checked these viral claims to see how, or if, California water policy and forest management factored this disaster. Advertisement Trump misleads about California water policy As Los Angeles firefighters raced to contain blazes in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood on January 7 and January 8, the area’s hydrant water pressure ran low, and some hydrants stopped producing water. Trump, in a January 8 Truth Social post, blamed Newsom’s management for the water issues and said Newsom had refused to allow “beautiful, clean, fresh water to flow into California”. “Governor Gavin [Newsom] refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump said. “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt, by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California. Now the ultimate price is being paid.” Trump’s posts seemed to blame the water constraints on statewide water management plans that capture rain and snow as it flows from Northern California. But experts said those plans would not have affected the fire response. Southern California has plenty of water stored, said Mark Gold, the water scarcity solutions director at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a Southern California Metropolitan Water District board member. The local water shortages happened because the city’s infrastructure wasn’t designed to respond to a fire as large as the one that broke out in the Palisades and elsewhere, experts said. Advertisement “It doesn’t matter what’s going on at the Bay-Delta or the Colorado (River) or Eastern Sierra right now,” Gold said. “We have all this water in storage right now. The problem is, when you look at something like firefighting, it’s a more localised issue on where your water is. Do you have adequate local storage?” Trump’s reference to a “water restoration declaration” that Newsom refused to sign is puzzling, as such a document does not appear to exist. Newsom’s press team said on social media, “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction.” Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to an email asking for clarification. After publication, a Trump spokesperson emailed PolitiFact referencing a plan from Trump’s first term that would have directed more water from the federal Central Valley Project to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. Newsom and then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sued the Trump administration over the plan, which they said violated protections for endangered species, including Chinook salmon and Delta smelt – a slender, 2- to 3-inch fish that is considered endangered under California’s Endangered Species Act. But here’s the kink in Trump’s logic: The Central Valley Project provides no water to Los Angeles. The regional water district receives some water from the State Water Project, which also collects water from the Delta-Bay area and shares some reservoirs and infrastructure with the Central Valley Project. But most of the extra water from Trump’s plan would have been sent to the San Joaquin Valley, and it’s wrong to connect water management further north to the firefighting challenges in Los Angeles. Advertisement The local water system failed because the city’s infrastructure was built to respond to routine structure fires, not huge wildfires across multiple neighbourhoods, experts said. Ann Jeffers, a University of Michigan civil and environmental engineering professor who studies fire engineering, said she doesn’t know of any industry standard for designing city water supplies to fight the kind of fire that erupted in the Palisades. Dryness and high winds meant that “these fire events would be likely to exceed a given design basis, if one even existed,” Jeffers said. Chris Field, a Stanford University professor and climate scientist, said climate change worsens these conditions. Three main water tanks near the Palisades, each holding about 1 million gallons (3.8 million litres), were filled in preparation for a fire because of dangerous weather. The tanks were all depleted by 3am on January 8, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power CEO and Chief Engineer Janisse Quinones said during a January 8 news conference. Although water continued to flow to the affected areas, demand for water rose faster than the system could deliver it. “There’s water in the trunk line, it just cannot get up the hill, because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough,” Quinones said. “And we cannot lower the amount of water that we provide to the fire department in order to supply the tanks, because we’re balancing firefighting with water.” A reservoir near the Pacific Palisades that is part of the city’s water supply had been closed for repairs when the fires broke out, which may have slowed the water pressure issues had it been operable, the Los Angeles Times reported on January 10. Advertisement Other social media users claimed slow construction of California’s reservoir had led to the hydrants running dry. But local infrastructure failures, not regional water storage, caused the hydrant problems, so it’s
Popular Republican reveals what’s next after governing key swing state for 8 years
CONCORD, N.H. – After eight years steering swing state New Hampshire, Republican Chris Sununu left office a few days ago with some of the highest approval ratings among America’s 50 governors. Sununu, who won election and re-election four times [New Hampshire and neighboring Vermont are the only states in the nation where governors serve two-year terms], gave credit to his team. “If you want to be good as an executive, you’ve got to surround yourself with great people,” Sununu said in a national digital exclusive interview with Fox News on his last full day in office on Wednesday. Asked about his tenure in office, Sununu said, “Like anything in life, you want to just make sure you leave it better than you found it. And I couldn’t be more proud of where we’ve come in the last eight years.” REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS SHOW ‘OVERWHELMING SUPPORT’ FOR DOGE “The key there is always finding a way to make it work for the citizens. That’s it. That’s the job. You have to be results-driven, regardless of the hand you’re dealt, the politics you’re given, the surrounding atmosphere,” Sununu said. “So I think in New Hampshire, we’ve done it pretty darn well,” he touted. AMERICA’S NEWEST GOVERNOR TAKES PAGE FROM TRUMP BY SETTING UP DOGE-LIKE COMMISSION His successor as governor, fellow Republican and former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, agreed. Ayotte, who campaigned on continuing the Sununu agenda, praised her predecessor. “New Hampshire is moving in the right direction, and no one deserves more credit for that after four terms at the helm than Governor Chris Sununu. Thank you, Governor,” Ayotte said. Longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckely, a vocal Sununu critic, disagreed as he pointed to “years of failed Republican policies” under the retiring governor. Sununu, who announced last year that he wouldn’t seek an unprecedented fifth two-year term as governor, reiterated what he’s said for months, that he’s “very much looking forward to getting back in the private sector, maybe private equity or boards.” WHAT THE NEW CHAIR STEERING REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS TOLD FOX NEWS The 50-year-old Sununu, who when he was first elected in 2016 was the nation’s youngest governor, has also, for months, repeatedly ruled out running for the Senate in New Hampshire in 2026. “I’m not planning on running for anything right now. I’m really not, at least for the next two, four, six years,” he emphasized. But Sununu, who in 2023 seriously mulled a Republican presidential nomination run in 2024 before deciding against it, didn’t totally close the door to another run for office in the future. “Who knows what happens down the road, but it would be way down the road and nothing, nothing I’m planning on, nothing my family would tolerate either short term,” he said. Sununu, who has been a regular on the cable news networks and Sunday talk shows in recent years, is considering a formalized media role. “I’m definitely talking to a few different networks that have come and asked me to do certain things, and I’ll continue doing stuff and helping them. Is there a long-term plan there to be a little more fixed with a network or a show or something like that? Definitely talking about it. I’m interested in it,” he shared. Sununu, who hails from a prominent political family (his father John H. Sununu served three terms as governor and later as President George H.W. Bush’s chief of staff, and older brother John E. Sununu was a congressman and senator), emphasized, “I’m definitely going to want to keep scratching that political itch in some way, not necessarily running for office, but staying involved, having a voice, helping the party.” But whether the party, once again firmly under President-elect Trump’s control, wants Sununu’s help is questionable. Sununu, a very vocal critic of Trump following the then-president’s unsuccessful efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden, ended up endorsing Trump rival Nikki Haley in the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race. Sununu became a top surrogate for Haley, a former two-term South Carolina governor who served as U.N. ambassador in Trump’s first administration. But after Trump cruised to the Republican presidential nomination, Sununu said he would vote for him. “Donald Trump is the head of the party, and he’s the voice of the Republican Party, and I got to say, I think he’s doing a pretty darn good job in the first couple months,” Sununu told Fox News. “The folks he’s been nominating to these positions. They’re moving quickly. They’re not slowing down. The efforts with DOGE (Trump’s planned government efficiency department), I think, have been phenomenal.” And he praised the politician he had long criticized. “Give the president credit. He earned it. He won the primaries. He got the votes,” Sununu said. “He did the groundwork to be successful, not just in the primary, but really galvanized a whole new working class of voters for the Republican Party as the general election went on. So he did a phenomenal job there.” But he said the GOP is bigger than any one politician, even Trump. “It’s not just a Donald Trump Republican or a Chris Sununu Republican. The Republican Party is big. Man. It is really, really, big, whether you have fiscal conservatives like myself, social moderates, whatever it might be, even some of the more extremist side of things, everyone has a place here and a voice.” And Sununu’s very optimistic about the GOP’s future. “It’s a really big party, and it’s growing. I mean, it really is growing, and Nov. 5 was a huge example of that. So I’m very optimistic on where the Republican Party is going with Donald Trump, with other leaders. JD Vance, everybody, kind of coming to the table, putting their two cents in and making sure that it’s all about America.”
No helmet, no fuel: This Indian state proposes strict policy to reduce road accidents
The majority of deaths in road accidents involving two-wheeler riders are due to the non-use of helmets, a government letter stated.
Security forces kill 3 Naxals in an encounter in Chattisgarh’s Bijapur district
At least three Naxalites have been killed in an encounter with security forces on Sunday in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, said Bijapur Police. The security personnel have also recovered several automatic and other weapons and explosives.
Trump says Jack Smith is a ‘disgrace’ after special counsel resigned from DOJ: ‘He left town empty handed!’
President-elect Trump blasted special counsel Jack Smith as a “disgrace” to himself and the country following Smith’s resignation from the Justice Department. Smith’s resignation was announced in a court filing Saturday. “The Special Counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and separated from the Department on January 10,” a footnote in the filing said. Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social on Sunday to criticize Smith for his investigations into the incoming president. SPECIAL COUNSEL JACK SMITH RESIGNS AFTER 2-YEAR STINT AT DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE “Deranged Jack Smith was fired today by the DOJ. He is a disgrace to himself, his family, and his Country. After spending over $100,000,000 on the Witch Hunt against TRUMP, he left town empty handed!” Trump wrote. Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2022 to investigate Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and his mishandling of classified documents. Smith previously served as acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee in 2017 during Trump’s first administration. The resignation comes ahead of the release of Smith’s report on the case related to Trump’s role in the attack on the Capitol. A recent court filing revealed that Garland plans to release the report soon, possibly before Trump takes office next week. “As I have made clear regarding every Special Counsel who has served since I took office, I am committed to making as much of the Special Counsel’s report public as possible, consistent with legal requirements and Department policy,” Garland wrote in a recent letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md. A judge from a federal appeals court ruled on Friday against blocking the release of Smith’s report. After Trump’s presidential election victory in November, Smith filed motions to bring his cases against the president-elect to a close. Smith asked a judge in late November to drop the charges against Trump in the case related to the Capitol riot. Prior to that request, Smith filed a motion to vacate all deadlines in that case, which was anticipated after Trump’s electoral win. TRUMP PRESSES GOP TO SWIFTLY SEND ‘ONE POWERFUL BILL’ FOR HIS SIGNATURE ASAP Trump said after the cases were dropped that they “should never have been brought.” “These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds, and WON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Fox News’ Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
After Anand Mahindra, Adar Poonawalla responds to L&T chief’s 90-hour work week remark: ‘My wife loves staring at me’
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the Serum Institute of India, backed Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra’s call for prioritising quality over quantity in work hours
Top Foreign Affairs Republican predicts US won’t leave NATO but will strengthen it
Top Foreign Affairs Republican Sen. Jim Risch predicted the U.S. would not abandon NATO under the Trump administration – and promised to work with the new president to strengthen it instead. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, who leads the powerful Foreign Relations Committee under the new Republican majority, said his number one priority is “getting Trump’s team in place.” He said he is “cautiously optimistic” that they can get Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, confirmed by Inauguration Day. Speaking with Fox News Digital one day after meeting with Trump, the chairman said he believes that Trump’s national security apparatus is going to be less frenzied this time around. “Anybody you talk to will tell you it’s really different this time,” he said. “It’s gonna be a lot better.” He said Trump discussed foreign policy priorities while meeting with senators on Wednesday, but declined to share details. Risch seems to pay little heed to Trump’s threats to pull the U.S. out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). “I think everyone’s recognized now with what Russia’s done, that the original founders of NATO were very right that we have to stand up and come together,” he said. “I don’t think anybody would have the idea that we should leave NATO.” “We had a vote here in the Congress on whether or not we should leave NATO,” he went on. “Overwhelmingly, that vote passed.” RUSSIA MONITORING TRUMP’S ‘DRAMATIC’ COMMENTS ON GREENLAND ACQUISITION In December 2023, Congress passed legislation as part of the NDAA that barred any president from removing the U.S. from NATO without approval from two-thirds of the Senate or an act of Congress. That provision was spearheaded by Rubio. Risch said that after Trump’s first term and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nations “very slowly” began to boost their military budgets. Canada is not on track to hit the 2% target until 2032. But now, 23 out of 32 NATO states meet the 2% target, which Republicans now say is not enough. Risch said he’s long had plans to work to get allies to boost their spending. “We’re going to have to do more. So there’s a lot of discussion about what that looks like, and President Trump and I think European countries are going to fall in line. They really need to.” Trump said in December that he would “absolutely” leave NATO if his terms weren’t being met. He’s long advocated for other members of the 32-member alliance to increase defense spending. “If they’re paying their bills, and if I think they’re treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I’d stay with NATO,” he said. HOUSE PASSES BILL THAT WOULD SANCTION INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT FOR TRYING TO ARREST NETANYAHU But to some, the comments were seen as leverage – a way to force nations lagging in defense spending to step it up. While NATO has long had a goal for its member states to spend 2% on defense, and many are still negligent, Trump recently moved the goalpost to 5% – more than any nation currently spends. “They can all afford it, but they should be at five percent, not two percent,” Trump said during an appearance at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. He complained that Europe had far more to lose than the U.S., given its geographical closeness to adversaries. “Europe is in for a tiny fraction of the money that we’re in [for],” Trump said during an appearance at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida late Tuesday. “We have a thing called the ocean in between us, right? Why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe?” Last year, the U.S. spent 3.4% of its GDP on defense. Poland spent the most, at 4.12%. Risch, who last led the Foreign Relations Committee from 2019 to 2021, said he plans to work with Trump on returning to a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, tightening sanctions to squeeze the regime’s economic system. “They are going to go back to the maximum pressure,” he said. “I’m encouraging it.” “The Biden administration shoveled a bunch of cash at them, begged them to come to the table for an agreement.” “Iran is going to have to make some really tough decisions, because I just don’t see, with exterior pressure they’re getting, with the interior pressure they’re getting, that they can sustain what they’ve been doing.”