Section: European Voice (EU)
Thanks Trump, for making Ukraine great again
Dear President Donald Trump, I was never taken in by your bluster and promises to “drain the swamp.” Instead, I drove over three hours to the swing state of Pennsylvania last November to cast my vote for your archrival Hillary Clinton. I worried that you were a dangerous demagogue who had no respect for the constitution, or for America’s...
Finland woos US with more muscular defense role
HELSINKI — Finland and its neighbor Sweden have centered their defense strategies for decades on neutrality and refraining from participating with the big military alliances on their doorsteps. But the annexation of Crimea and war in Ukraine in 2014 changed that calculus in Northern Europe. Now, in another sign of the changing environment,...
Fast forward to two-speed Europe
There’s a feeling among European leaders that the bloc has weathered the worst of its recent crises — euro, refugee, Brexit — and should now turn its focus to the future. The question now: What should that future look like? Is European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s vision of a more integrated union the right way forward?...
Paul Manafort proposes $12.5 million bail package
Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is offering to post $12.5 million-worth of assets — including his Trump Tower apartment — as part of a bail package to ensure that he appears for the trial he’s facing on charges of money laundering and failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, Manafort’s defense team said Saturday....
Trump on Mueller probe: I’m ‘not angry at anybody’
U.S. President Donald Trump told the New York Times on Wednesday that “I’m actually not angry at anybody” in relation to the ongoing Russia investigation, disputing a widely reported characterization that he has grown increasingly frustrated with the probe. “I’m not under investigation, as you know,” Trump told a Times reporter in a...
Trump and allies dismiss Papadopoulos as the ‘coffee boy’
President Donald Trump and his allies fought back Tuesday against special counsel Robert Mueller’s wave of indictments against former campaign aides, dismissing an ex-foreign policy adviser who cut a plea deal with prosecutors as a “liar” and nothing more than the “coffee boy.” The White House was rocked on Monday after Mueller’s team...
Inside White House, a sense of both danger and relief in Mueller’s first moves
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s first charges in his sprawling Russia investigation were a one-two blow that partially caught the White House off guard but also offered a measure of relief, according to several of President Donald Trump’s aides, advisers, lawyers and others close to the case. The indictments of former campaign...
Highlights from Mueller indictment of Manafort, Gates
Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, two former top campaign officials for President Donald Trump, have been indicted on 12 counts, according to documents made public on Monday, making them the first people to be charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into 2016 foreign election interference. In a 31-page indictment, federal...
Wary of Russia, Finns take another look at NATO
HELSINKI — For decades, Finland managed its delicate relationship with Russia by avoiding any move that could provoke the “sleeping bear” on its eastern border. Now, a retired senior diplomat is pushing his country to risk angering the beast — by joining the NATO military alliance. “This country deserves an open debate when it comes to foreign...
Washington’s unlikely pair of NATO women
One is a lifelong Republican, a Donald Trump appointee, living abroad for the first time, whose only language is English — with a strong Texas twang. The other is a diehard Democrat, veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, fluent Russian speaker, and career expert on non-proliferation. These two women are the most senior Americans at...
