UK PM Starmer says Trump has a point on European defense commitment

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as he visits a military base to meet planners mapping out next steps in the Coalition of the Willing in Greater London, Britain, March 20, 2025. (REUTERS)
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Updated 23 March 2025
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UK PM Starmer says Trump has a point on European defense commitment

  • Starmer is trying to assemble a multinational military force that he calls a coalition of the willing to keep Ukraine’s skies, ports and borders secure after any peace settlement

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said US President Donald Trump has a point that European countries must bear a greater burden for their collective self-defense, the New York Times said on Sunday.
“We need to think about defense and security in a more immediate way,” he told the newspaper in an interview.
Starmer is trying to assemble a multinational military force that he calls a coalition of the willing to keep Ukraine’s skies, ports and borders secure after any peace settlement, the report said.
On Trump, Starmer said, “On a person-to-person basis, I think we have a good relationship.” But, he said, the US leader’s actions, from imposing a 25 percent tariff on British steel to berating President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, had generated “quite a degree of disorientation.”


Swiss bus fire likely ‘intentional,’ terror motive ruled out for now: police

Updated 58 min 47 sec ago
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Swiss bus fire likely ‘intentional,’ terror motive ruled out for now: police

  • A bus fire that killed at least six people in western Switzerland was likely set intentionally but probably not as an act of terror, police said on Wednesday

GENEVA: A bus fire that killed at least six people in western Switzerland was likely set intentionally but probably not as an act of terror, police said on Wednesday.
The fire broke out on the bus in the main street of the small town of Kerzers, around 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the Alpine nation’s capital Bern, at about 6:25 p.m. (1725 GMT) Tuesday.
In an interview on Wednesday morning with Swiss national broadcaster RTS, Fribourg Canton police communications chief Martial Pugin confirmed that while “an intentional act is the most likely scenario,” “at present there is no evidence” it was a terror attack.