White House mistakenly shares Yemen war plans with a journalist at The Atlantic

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks next to President Donald Trump, in the Oval Office at the White House, in Washington DC, US, on March 21, 2025. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 25 March 2025
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White House mistakenly shares Yemen war plans with a journalist at The Atlantic

  • Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said he was unexpectedly invited on March 13 to an encrypted chat group on Signal
  • In the group, national security adviser Mike Waltz tasked his deputy with setting up a “tiger team” to coordinate US action against Houthis

WASHINGTON: Top Trump administration officials mistakenly disclosed war plans in a messaging group that included a journalist shortly before the US attacked Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, the White House said on Monday, following a first-hand account by The Atlantic.
Democratic lawmakers swiftly blasted the misstep, saying it was a breach of US national security and a violation of law that must be investigated by Congress.
The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a report on Monday that he was unexpectedly invited on March 13 to an encrypted chat group on the Signal messaging app called the “Houthi PC small group.” In the group, national security adviser Mike Waltz tasked his deputy Alex Wong with setting up a “tiger team” to coordinate US action against the Houthis.
National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said the chat group appeared to be authentic.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Democratic lawmakers demand investigation into security breach

• Use of Signal app for sensitive info deemed illegal by Democrats

• Defense Secretary Hegseth said to call European allies freeloaders

US President Donald Trump launched an ongoing campaign of large-scale military strikes against Yemen’s Houthis on March 15 over the group’s attacks against Red Sea shipping, and he warned Iran, the Houthis’ main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group.
Hours before those attacks started, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted operational details about the plan in the messaging group, “including information about targets, weapons the US would be deploying, and attack sequencing,” Goldberg said. His report omitted the details but Goldberg termed it a “shockingly reckless” use of a Signal chat.
Accounts that appeared to represent Vice President JD Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, and senior National Security Council officials were assembled in the chat group, Goldberg wrote.
Joe Kent, Trump’s nominee for National Counterterrorism Center director, was apparently on the Signal chain despite not yet being Senate-confirmed.
Trump told reporters at the White House that he was unaware of the incident. “I don’t know anything about it. I’m not a big fan of The Atlantic,” Trump said. A White House official said later that an investigation was under way and Trump had been briefed on it.
The NSC’s Hughes said in a statement: “At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
“The thread is a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials. The ongoing success of the Houthi operation demonstrates that there were no threats to our servicemembers or our national security.”
Hegseth denied sharing war plans in the group chat.
“Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that,” he told reporters while on an official trip to Hawaii on Monday.

‘EUROPEAN FREE-LOADING’

According to screenshots of the chat reported by The Atlantic, officials in the group debated whether the US should carry out the strikes, and at one point Vance appeared to question whether US allies in Europe, more exposed to shipping disruption in the region, deserved US help.
“@PeteHegseth if you think we should do it let’s go,” a person identified as Vance wrote. “I just hate bailing Europe out again,” the person wrote, adding: “Let’s just make sure our messaging is tight here.”
A person identified as Hegseth replied: “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
The Atlantic reported that the person identified as Vance also raised concerns about the timing of the strikes, and said there was a strong argument in favor of delaying them by a month.
“I am not sure the president is aware how inconsistent this is with his message on Europe right now. There’s a further risk that we see a moderate to severe spike in oil prices,” the account wrote, before saying he was willing to support the group’s consensus.
Yemen, Houthi-ally Iran and the European Union’s diplomatic service did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
Under US law, it can be a crime to mishandle, misuse or abuse classified information, though it is unclear whether those provisions might have been breached in this case. Messages that The Atlantic report said were set by Waltz to disappear from the Signal app after a period of time also raise questions about possible violations of federal record-keeping laws.
As part of a Trump administration effort to chase down leaks by officials to journalists unrelated to the Signal group, Gabbard posted on X on March 14 that any “unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such.”
On Tuesday, Gabbard is due to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats to the United States.
Created by the entrepreneur Moxie Marlinspike, Signal has gone from an exotic messaging app used by privacy-conscious dissidents to the unofficial whisper network of Washington officialdom.
Democratic lawmakers called the use of the Signal group illegal and demanded an investigation.
“This is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence that I have read about in a very, very long time,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said, adding that he would ask Majority Leader John Thune to investigate.
“We’re just finding out about it. But obviously, we’ve got to run it to ground and figure out what went on there. We’ll have a plan,” said Thune, a Republican from South Dakota.
There was no immediate suggestion from the White House that the breach would lead to any staffing changes.
“President Trump continues to have the utmost confidence in his national security team, including national security adviser Mike Waltz,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Reuters.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said on X the use of Signal to discuss highly sensitive national security issues was “blatantly illegal and dangerous beyond belief.”
“Every single one of the government officials on this text chain have now committed a crime – even if accidentally – that would normally involve a jail sentence,” Democratic Senator Chris Coons said on X.


WHO members adopt a ‘pandemic agreement’ born out of the disjointed global COVID response

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WHO members adopt a ‘pandemic agreement’ born out of the disjointed global COVID response

GENEVA: The World Health Organization’s member countries on Tuesday approved an agreement to better prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics in the wake of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus.
Sustained applause echoed in a Geneva hall hosting the WHO’s annual assembly as the measure — debated and devised over three years — passed without opposition.
The treaty guarantees that countries which share virus samples will receive tests, medicines and vaccines. Up to 20 percent of such products would be given to the WHO to ensure poorer countries have some access to them when the next pandemic hits.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has touted the agreement as “historic” and a sign of multilateralism at a time when many countries are putting national interests ahead of shared values and cooperation.
Dr. Esperance Luvindao, Namibia’s health minister and the chair of a committee that paved the way for Tuesday’s adoption, said that the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted huge costs “on lives, livelihoods and economies.”
“We — as sovereign states — have resolved to join hands, as one world together, so we can protect our children, elders, frontline health workers and all others from the next pandemic,” Luvindao added. “It is our duty and responsibility to humanity.”
The treaty’s effectiveness will face doubts because the United States — which poured billions into speedy work by pharmaceutical companies to develop COVID-19 vaccines — is sitting out, and because countries face no penalties if they ignore it, a common issue in international law.
The US, traditionally the top donor to the UN health agency, was not part of the final stages of the agreement process after the Trump administration announced a US pullout from the WHO and funding to the agency in January.

Hungarian lawmakers approve bill to quit International Criminal Court

Updated 3 min 47 sec ago
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Hungarian lawmakers approve bill to quit International Criminal Court

  • The government announced the move after Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Hungary in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant

Hungary’s parliament approved a bill on Tuesday that will start the country’s year-long withdrawal process from the International Criminal Court, which Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government said has become “political.”
Orban’s government announced the move on April 3, shortly after Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Hungary for a state visit in a rare trip abroad in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant. The ICC’s Presidency of the Assembly of State Parties expressed concern at the move.
The International Criminal Court was set up more than two decades ago to prosecute those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Orban last month said the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, a rule-of-law court, but rather a political court.”
Hungary has rejected the idea of arresting the Israeli prime minister and has called the warrant “brazen.”
Hungary is a founding member of the ICC and ratified its founding document in 2001. However, the law has not been promulgated.
The bill to withdraw from the ICC passed on Tuesday with 134 members voting in favor and 37 against.
“Hungary firmly rejects the use of international organizations — in particular criminal courts — as instruments of political influence,” the bill, submitted by Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen, said on parliament’s website.
Netanyahu called Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC a “bold and principled decision.”
The Israeli prime minister faces an ICC arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza as Israel expands its military operation in the Palestinian enclave. Netanyahu has denied the allegations.
A country’s withdrawal from the ICC comes into effect one year after the United Nations Secretary-General receives a written notification of the decision.


Cambodian students re-enact bloody Khmer Rouge crimes

Updated 24 min 23 sec ago
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Cambodian students re-enact bloody Khmer Rouge crimes

PHNOM PENH: Cambodian students wearing all black and wielding bamboo clubs and wooden rifles staged a dramatic re-enactment on Tuesday of a genocide that killed two million people in the 1970s.
A quarter of Cambodia’s population died of starvation, forced labor or torture or were slaughtered in mass killings under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979.
The Khmer Rouge atrocities are commemorated at museums and sites including Choeung Ek, a notorious former “Killing Field” in Phnom Penh, where an annual Day of Remembrance event is held.
Hundreds gathered at Choeung Ek, where about 15,000 people died between 1975 and 1979, holding prayers in front of a display of victims’ skulls.
Students brandishing mock weapons then acted out slitting victims’ throats, shooting or clubbing them in a re-enactment of Khmer Rouge attacks on civilians.
Some attendees cried at the confrontingly vivid re-enactment.
“My tears fell when I watched the performance,” attendee and survivor Chruok Sam, 70, told AFP.
He lost 12 family members under the Khmer Rouge and said the performance showed “exactly the same” as what he had experienced in 1975.
He hoped the re-enactment would help young generations learn more about what he called “the most heinous and cruel regime on Earth.”
Another survivor, 63-year-old Em Ry, said she was still scared and had never been able to forget Pol Pot’s time in power.
She was forced to work all day and only ate a “spoonful of corn,” she said, and lost several family members including her grandmother.
Prime Minister Hun Manet, who was at the opening of a new cement plant in central Kampong Speu province, urged people not to forget the past.
“We must move on, but we cannot forget our painful past,” he said.
Cambodia marked the 50th anniversary last month of the Khmer Rouge’s bloody march into Phnom Penh.
A special tribunal sponsored by the United Nations convicted three key Khmer Rouge figures before ceasing operations in 2022. Other former cadres still live freely.
Pol Pot, nicknamed “Brother Number One,” died in 1998 before he was brought to trial.


France ‘determined’ to recognize Palestinian state: foreign minister

Updated 36 min 52 sec ago
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France ‘determined’ to recognize Palestinian state: foreign minister

PARIS: France is “determined” to recognize a Palestinian state, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, condemning Israel for the “indefensible” situation in Gaza created by its military campaign and humanitarian blockade.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also reaffirmed that Paris backed a Netherlands-led initiative for a review of the cooperation agreement between the European Union and Israel, which could affect political and economic ties.
President Emmanuel Macron has left open the possibility that France could become the latest European nation to recognize a Palestinian state at a UN conference in June.
“We cannot leave the children of Gaza a legacy of violence and hatred. So all this must stop, and that’s why we are determined to recognize a Palestinian state,” Barrot told France Inter radio.
“And I am actively working toward this, because we want to contribute to a political solution in the interest of the Palestinians but also for the security of Israel,” he added.
Barrot was speaking after Macron joined British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a rare joint statement that angered Israel.
The statement said that “we will not stand by,” threatened “further concrete actions” if Israel continued to block aid, and said that “We are committed to recognizing a Palestinian state.”
Pressed over what these actions could entail, Barrot again urged the EU to agree to the Dutch request to review the association agreement between Israel and the bloc and, in particular, examine if Israel was violating the accord’s commitments on human rights.
He said this raises “the possibility of an eventual suspension” of an accord, which has political as well as commercial dimensions.
“Neither Israel or the EU have an interest in ending that accord,” he added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authorized a limited amount of humanitarian aid after more than two and a half months of a complete blockade of the Palestinian territory, which is facing a catastrophic humanitarian situation.
But Barrot said this was “totally insufficient.”
The situation in Gaza is “indefensible because blind violence and the blocking of humanitarian aid by the Israeli government have turned Gaza into a death trap if not a cemetery.”
In a warning to Israel, he added: “When you sow violence you harvest violence.”
The war was sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the military says are dead.
Gaza’s health ministry said Monday at least 3,340 people in the Palestinian territory have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 53,486.


How uproar over a Māori haka, beloved in New Zealand life, sowed chaos and gridlock in Parliament

Updated 50 min 20 sec ago
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How uproar over a Māori haka, beloved in New Zealand life, sowed chaos and gridlock in Parliament

WELLINGTON: The haka, a chanting dance of challenge, is sacred to New Zealand’s Māori people but it’s become a beloved cultural institution among New Zealanders of all races. Spine-tingling performances at sports events, funerals and graduations often go viral online, a non-partisan point of pride for the country abroad.
But one haka performed in protest in New Zealand’s Parliament by three legislators last November has provoked fierce division among lawmakers about whether it was an act of peaceful dissent, or disruptive and even intimidating to their opponents.
A vote to approve unprecedented, lengthy bans from Parliament for the Māori party lawmakers who enacted the protest was unexpectedly suspended on Tuesday. Debate will resume in June, when it threatens to gridlock the legislative agenda until politicians from all parties reach consensus on what the punishment should be.
Hundreds of protesters against the sanctions waited outside Parliament’s front doors in New Zealand’s capital, Wellington, on Tuesday to greet the Māori party lawmakers with a haka when they emerged.
What is the haka?
The haka was once viewed as a war dance, but that understanding has changed in New Zealand as it has been embraced in a range of celebratory, somber and ceremonial settings. It’s an expression of Māori identity and while sacred, it can be performed by people of any race who are educated by Māori in the words, movements and cultural protocols.
Emotional haka have generated news headlines in the past year when performed by soldiers farewelling a New Zealander who died fighting in Ukraine, and in Paris by athletes from New Zealand’s Olympic team. While the best-known haka is “ka mate,” the chant often performed by the All Blacks rugby team before games, there are many variants.
Why was this one controversial?
Last November’s protest wasn’t the first time a haka has rung out in Parliament. Performances regularly follow the passage of laws important to Māori.
But some lawmakers decried this one for two reasons: because the legislators from Te Pāti Māori, the Māori Party, left their seats and strode across the floor toward government politicians while performing it, and because it disrupted the vote on a proposed law.
When asked how the Māori party would vote on a bill they said would dismantle Indigenous rights, Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke – New Zealand’s youngest parliamentarian, at 22 – tore up a copy of the law and began the haka, joined by two of her colleagues.
The law, an attempt to rewrite New Zealand’s founding treaty between Māori tribal leaders and the British crown, was widely unpopular and has since been defeated. But for six months, a committee of the lawmakers’ peers have fought furiously about how — or whether — their protest of it should be punished.
Why is debate about it still going?
Usually there’s agreement among parliamentarians about penalties for errant behavior. But this episode polarized the committee considering the lawmakers’ actions.
Its report recommended Maipi-Clarke, who the committee said showed contrition in a letter, be suspended for seven days and her colleagues for 21 days. That’s the harshest penalty ever assigned to New Zealand lawmakers; the previous record was three days.
Parliament Speaker Gerry Brownlee this month scheduled a rare, unlimited debate in Parliament until all parties could find consensus on the penalty, citing the severity of the proposed bans. But minutes after the debate began Tuesday, it was adjourned at the government’s behest after they allowed the Māori party lawmakers to stay until after Thursday’s budget was delivered.
It permitted the government their budget week agenda and meant the Māori lawmakers — opponents of the government — wouldn’t miss one of Parliament’s most significant dates. But the debate about the bans will then resume.
Opposition leader Chris Hipkins, the only opponent of the sanctions to speak before debate was suspended, cited episodes where lawmakers have brawled in Parliament and driven a tractor up the building’s steps, but were not suspended, as evidence that the bans weren’t fair.
But Judith Collins, the chair of the committee that produced the sanctions, said the penalties were “not about the haka.” Collins said the lawmakers’ behavior was the most egregious she’d ever witnessed.
What happens next?
The debate will resume on June 5, when it threatens to stall usual government business once more. The government said Tuesday that it would not back down from the punishments suggested and opposition parties said they couldn’t be swayed from disputing them.
Outside Parliament, activist Eru Kapa-Kingi told the assembled crowd that the haka was “a source of fear” in Parliament.
“Even though when the All Blacks do it it’s a good thing,” he added.