Tricolor, firecrackers and drums… celebration from Kanpur to Kashmir after victory over Pakistan.
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India vs Pakistan: India made it to the Super 8 by defeating Pakistan by 61 runs in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026. Celebrations are being held across the country after the victory against Pakistan. Everyone is praising Ishan Kishan’s batting and the performance of Team India.
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There is an atmosphere of celebration in the entire country after India’s victory over Pakistan.
New Delhi. In the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, India not only registered a spectacular victory by defeating Pakistan by 61 runs, but also secured their place in the Super 8. After this exciting match, an atmosphere of celebration was seen across the country. From Uttar Pradesh to West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, and Madhya Pradesh, cricket lovers took to the streets and expressed happiness.
As soon as the match ended in Kanpur, the fans burst crackers and congratulated each other by feeding sweets. An excited fan said, “India won the match today. Team India’s batting was very good. It was not an easy innings, but the players performed brilliantly.” People waved the tricolor and expressed pride in the team’s victory. There was an atmosphere of celebration in Siliguri also after India’s victory. Cricket fans took to the streets, waving Indian flags, celebrating with drums, and congratulating each other. The excitement of victory was clearly visible in the entire city.
Fans appreciated the performance of Team India in Noida. A fan said, “We are very happy. Ishan Kishan batted brilliantly.” At the same time, another fan said, “India’s performance was very good. It feels different after defeating Pakistan. There is applause for India all over the world and we all are feeling proud.” Celebration of victory was also seen in Jammu. A fan said, “Bholenath’s blessings are with us. Today is also his festival and there was an atmosphere of happiness since morning. Now India has given another reason to celebrate by defeating Pakistan. Team India has maintained its record.”
People in Moradabad celebrated the victory by bursting crackers and raising slogans. At the same time, in Indore too, cricket lovers took to the streets and congratulated the team. A fan said, “India has defeated Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. Hearty congratulations and best wishes to the countrymen.” This victory of India has not only strengthened its position in the tournament, but has also brought happiness on the faces of crores of cricket fans. With entry into Super 8, Team India has taken a strong step towards the title.
Rakesh Ranjan Kumar has more than 10 years of experience in digital journalism. Before joining News18, he has worked in Live Hindustan, Dainik Jagran, Zee News, Jansatta and Dainik Bhaskar. Currently he h…read more
After spending time and resources crisscrossing the Atlantic to cultivate the support of the Maga faithful, Liz Truss has finally got the prize she apparently craved: a photo with Donald Trump.
Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister tweeted a photo on Sunday showing her in the company of the US president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
“Right about everything,” Truss posted, tagging the president on X.
Trump had yet to record the meeting on his own social media feeds, focusing instead on promoting the new documentary made by his wife, Melania. It is unclear how long the meeting between Truss and Trump lasted and how it was initiated.
Truss, who has increasingly adopted extreme positions to the right of the Conservative party she once led since she left office, and has attempted to relaunch herself as a podcaster, has made addresses in each of the last two years at the flagship annual conference of the US right.
She told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland last year that her own country was “failing”, as she appeared alongside rightwing populists from around the world planning deeper ties and cooperation.
An increasingly marginal figure in British politics, who was prime minister for only 49 days and lost her seat in 2024’s general election, Truss has sought to secure a safe harbour at CPAC, a once mainstream conservative gathering that has embraced Trump’s brand of nativist-populism.
At home in the UK, meanwhile, Truss has been trying to get her own club off the ground and has been accused of wandering the premises of London’s exclusive club 5 Hertford Street in search of members to poach for her rival operation.
The latter, called The Leconfield, asks “founding members” for £500,000 and was conceived by Truss and the property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, who is transforming his Curzon Street offices for the venture.
A Democratic state auditor is taking Massachusetts legislative leaders, including members of her own party, to court after uncovering nearly $12 million in alleged fraud in public assistance programs, seeking to enforce a voter-approved audit law.
“What are they hiding? If there’s nothing to hide, open up the doors, let the sun shine in. Let’s do this audit,” Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio said on “Saturday in America.”
DiZoglio, a Democrat and former member of both the Massachusetts House and Senate, is filing a complaint with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to enforce a 2024 ballot measure that authorized her office to audit the legislature. The measure passed with 72% support.
The legal action follows a report from the Massachusetts State Auditor’s Office identifying nearly $12 million in alleged fraud in fiscal year 2025 alone across several public assistance programs.
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio speaks to reporters at the State House in Boston, Mass. on Jan. 28, 2025.(Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)
DiZoglio notified legislative leaders earlier this year of her intent to conduct a performance audit but said House and Senate leaders refused to provide the necessary documents. She added that the state attorney general declined to intervene.
“This is something that 72% of voters came out to support, crossing party lines,” she said.
“You had progressive Democrats joining together with conservative Republicans. And essentially saying that they want this audit to get done.”
According to the auditor, Massachusetts is the only state in the nation where the legislature, governor’s office and court system exempt themselves from the state’s public records law.
She argues the newly approved audit authority would bring long-sought transparency to taxpayer-funded records, including financial receipts and state contracts.
“This is about transparency and accountability,” DiZoglio added.
The Massachusetts Statehouse is seen, Jan. 2, 2019, in Boston.(AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
“This is not about whether you support the right or the left. This is coming together and getting access to documents that should be a matter of public record.”
DiZoglio emphasized that rooting out fraud is essential to protecting public assistance programs for those who genuinely need them. She shared her own background, saying she was born to a 17-year-old single mother who relied on programs such as WIC before becoming a nurse and getting back on her feet.
“A lot of people rely on these programs,” she said. “But folks who are committing fraud need to be held accountable. We need to root out that waste, fraud and abuse so that these systems are working as they should and people truly in need get these services.”
“This is another ploy to sidestep the required approval of my office and will bring her no closer to auditing the Legislature,” she said in a statement, per the outlet.
“This filing is not about enforcing the law. In order to enforce the law, she would answer my office’s straightforward questions, including how privileges given to the Legislature in our state constitution nearly 250 years ago impact her authority to audit the Legislature.”
DiZoglio said she hopes the state’s highest court will ultimately side with voters.
“The Constitution is there to protect the people, not the politicians,” she said.
Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.
Throw out Shaheen-Babar… This Pakistani started whining after losing to India
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Shoaib Akhtar Mohammad Yusuf reaction after Pakistan defeat: In the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, Pakistan cricket team suffered a crushing defeat against India by 61 runs. After this defeat, many former Pakistani cricketers have vented their anger on players like Babar Azam and Shaheen Afridi.
Former cricketers angry at Babar Azam-Shaheen Afridi
New Delhi: In the most high-voltage match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, India defeated Pakistan by 61 runs. Batting first, the Indian team scored 175 runs at the R Premadasa Cricket Stadium in Colombo. In response, Team India restricted Pakistan to 114 runs in 18 overs. Many former cricketers of Pakistan are not able to digest this shameful defeat against India in the T20 World Cup. In such a situation, after the match was over, he started scolding the Pakistani players.
Former veteran Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yousuf even talked about removing players like Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Shadab Khan from the team. Mohammad Yousuf wrote on his X handle, “The time of Shaheen Afridi, Babar Azam and Shadab Khan is over. Pakistan’s T20 team needs new performing players, not hollow victories against weak teams.”
Time’s up for Shaheen, Babar, and Shadab, Pakistan’s T20 squad needs new performers, not empty wins against weaker sides #T20worldcup
Shoaib Akhtar also scolded the players
Apart from Mohammad Yusuf, former fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar also scolded the players fiercely. After the match, in a debate on an Indian TV channel, he raised questions on Shaheen Afridi’s bowling. He said, “We don’t need 23 runs in batting from Shaheen Afridi. We need wickets from him. He is bowling at 125 kmph. How will we get wickets in such a situation? The Pakistani team was nowhere in front of India in the match.”
Raising questions on Pakistan cricket, Shoaib Akhtar said, “The Indian team is playing cricket 50 or even 100 years ahead. Especially in the T20 format, Pakistan is nowhere in front of India. The kind of cricket Pakistan is playing is not modern cricket. You will never be able to win in this kind of cricket. Especially not in front of teams like India.”
Working as Chief Sub Editor in Network 18 Group since October 2025. 9 years experience in journalism. Started career with sports beat in ABP News Digital. Reputable institutions like India TV and Navbharat Times Group…read more
An Australian man died in a Balinese hospital just days after the Australian consulate failed to issue an emergency passport that his son says could have saved his life.
Wayne Harvey, an expat who had been living on the island since 2018, was 69 years old when he was admitted to the Puri Raharja hospital in Denpasar with suspected appendicitis on Christmas Eve in 2022.
After surgery to remove his appendix, the hospital advised his son in Australia, Jake Harvey, that there had been complications with the operation and that they were no longer able to care for Wayne adequately.
The hospital recommended that Wayne be moved to the nearby Professor Ngoerah public hospital for treatment, but his passport – required for the transfer to take place – was missing.
Jake, who is Wayne’s only son and next of kin, called the Department of Foreign Affairs’ 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre from Australia on 1 January 2023. He explained that his father was unconscious and critically ill.
He requested an emergency passport be issued for his father to enable the transfer.
The consular official advised that they could not discuss the situation with Jake without his father’s permission because of the Privacy Act.
For more than two days, Jake repeatedly emailed and phoned the consulate’s emergency assistance line requesting help, including sending confronting videos and photos of his father on life support.
Jake Harvey’s complaint went unanswered for two years. Photograph: David Kelly/The Guardian
On 2 January Jake advised the consulate that his father’s condition was getting worse.
The next day he wrote: “This is taking too long … I am sick to death of hearing about the privacy policy.” He asked the consulate to call the hospital to get Wayne’s consent for Jake to act on his behalf as next of kin. “If [you are unable to get his consent due to his medical condition] you need to start the process of talking to me.”
Jake says he emphasised that the consulate needed to help Wayne, even if they could not discuss the case with him.
On 3 January, the consulate emailed Jake a summary of his father’s condition, based on information it said was provided by an on-duty nurse. They conceded in the email that the hospital was “not up to Australian standard”, but suggested Wayne’s condition was “stable” and had improved.
But Jake says this was at odds with information he was receiving from doctors at the hospital and a friend of his father’s.
In response, later on 3 January, Jake wrote: “Regarding the transfer to the other hospital: we were told by the hospital staff member that Wayne doesn’t have his Passport, because it is in the immigration office … The hospital staff said he needs these documents to be transferred to the other hospital (Prof Ngoerah Public Hospital), if his condition worsens. Is the Consulate able to help with getting these documents?”
Jake received no response to this email and multiple follow-up emails.
The consulate did not issue an emergency passport, Wayne was not transferred, and he died in the Puri Raharja hospital on 7 January 2023.
Wayne Harvey’s body was then transferred to the morgue at the hospital that had been recommended for the earlier transfer.
A complaint about the handling of his father’s case, lodged by Jake two days after his father’s death in early 2023, was ignored for more than two years.
The Department of Foreign Affairs responded 27 months later, after Jake sent a second follow-up email in mid-2025 expressing frustration that he never received a response.
In late 2025 the Department of Foreign Affairs advised Jake that it had undertaken an internal investigation into the case and issued him an apology.
A letter sent from the department’s assistant secretary for the consular branch, Paula Brewer, in October 2025, seen by Guardian Australia, said the department had conducted a review of Wayne’s case based on Jake’s feedback.
“We acknowledge the concerns you raised about your interactions with the Consular Emergency Centre,” Brewer said.
The Puri Raharja hospital in Denpasar. Photograph: RSU Puri Raharja Denpasar/Facebook
“Your experience has been shared with the relevant teams and managers to help inform improvements in how we communicate with families during critical situations.
“In your father’s case, it appears we did not initially have a clear understanding of the seriousness of his condition. Once it became evident that he was unable to provide consent, the Consulate took steps to share information with you, including a medical report.
“However, I acknowledge that the process and timeframes involved – particularly around public holidays – were not clearly explained to you at the time. I am truly sorry for any additional distress this may have caused during an already painful time.”
Jake has since demanded further clarification, saying the department’s claim that it was not aware of the seriousness of his father’s condition was “unacceptable”.
“The consular services were contacted because his condition was so serious that he needed to be moved to a different hospital because the hospital that had him felt he needed more care,” Jake wrote in a November 2025 email in response to Brewer’s apology.
“He was unconscious following complications from having his appendix removed. He could not be moved without his passport and that was missing. That’s why consular services were contacted. We needed help with a passport.”
In response, the department said that it was basing its advice on information received from the hospital on 3 January, which stated Wayne’s condition was “stable”.
“We recognise how deeply distressing your father’s death has been for you and your family, and we are sincerely sorry the consular services provided in relation to Wayne’s case did not meet your expectations,” a consular official wrote.
“Consular officers are not medical professionals and must rely on the advice of treating medical staff regarding the seriousness of a person’s health condition and the appropriate treatment required.”
“We greatly appreciate your feedback, which helps us review and continually improve the support we provide to Australians overseas and their families.”
In response to questions from the Guardian, a DFAT spokeswoman said the department was “deeply sorry for the family’s loss and extends sincere condolences to the family.”
“An internal review found the case was managed in line with established consular procedures,” she said.
“It also identified areas to improve communication with family members and changes to DFAT processes have since been implemented. The review found these issues were not related to the medical outcome in this case.”
The department said it was constrained by privacy obligations in further discussing details of the case.
Ted Levine, who played Buffalo Bill in the film Silence of the Lambs, spoke out about transphobia criticism the movie has received since its release 35 years ago.
“There are certain aspects of the movie that don’t hold up too well,” Levine told The Hollywood Reporter.
The portrayal of the character Buffalo Bill, also known as Jame Gumb, has been criticized over the years by the transgender community as harmful.
“We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues,” he added to the outlet. “There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.”
“[It’s] just over time and having gotten aware and worked with trans folks, and understanding a bit more about the culture and the reality of the meaning of gender,” Levine said.
“It’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s f——g wrong. And you can quote me on that,” Levine noted.
Despite that, Levin said about his performance as Buffalo Bill: “I didn’t play him as being gay or trans. I think he was just a f—-d-up heterosexual man. That’s what I was doing.”
In the film, Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lecter, who is consulted by FBI trainee Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster.
Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lecter in ‘Silence of the Lambs’(Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)
Lecter is a cannibalistic serial killer who advises Starling, in order to help capture Buffalo Bill.
The film, directed by Jonathan Demme, was released on Valentine’s Day in 1991, and ended up becoming a global hit. It won five Oscars, including best actor, best actress, best screenplay, best director and best picture.
Demme’s producing partner, Edward Saxon, said to the outlet: “We were really loyal to the book. As we made the film, there was just no question in our minds that Buffalo Bill was a completely aberrant personality — that he wasn’t gay or trans.”
Jodie Foster starred as FBI trainee Clarice Starling in the movie(Aurore Marechal/Getty Images)
“He was sick. To that extent, we missed it. From my point of view, we weren’t sensitive enough to the legacy of a lot of stereotypes and their ability to harm,” he explained to THR.
“There’s regret, but it didn’t come from any place of malice. It actually came from a place of seeing this guy. We all had dear friends and family who were gay. We thought it would just be very clear that Buffalo Bill adapts different things from society, from a place of an incredibly sick pathology,” Saxon said.
Sarah Sotoodeh is an associate entertainment editor for Fox News Digital.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026 on Monday at 5 pm at the Bharat Mandapam. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) gave this information. The PMO said in a statement that the India AI Impact Expo will be organized from 16 to 20 February at the Bharat Mandapam along with the India AI Impact Summit.
The expo will be a national platform for practical demonstration of AI, where policy meets practice, innovation becomes widespread and technology reaches the common citizen. The expo will be held across 10 arenas spread over an area of over 70,000 square metres, bringing together global technology companies, startups, academics and research institutes, central ministries, state governments and international partners.
Pavilions of 13 countries will be set up
The expo will have pavilions from 13 countries including Australia, Japan, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Estonia, Tajikistan and Africa, showcasing global collaboration in the AI field.
Over 300 exhibition pavilions and live performances
The expo will feature more than 300 exhibition pavilions and live performances. The framework of the program is based on three key themes: People, Planet and Progress. Under People, the use of AI in education, health and civil services will be shown. At the same time, solutions related to environment and climate will be presented in the planet. Along with this, the role of AI in industry, business and economic development will be explained.
More than 600 startups will be included
More than 600 startups will also participate in the expo. Many of these are developing effective and practical solutions globally. These startups will showcase AI solutions in use in the real world. There are many such startups whose AI solutions are already implemented at the grassroots level.
More than 2.5 lakh people expected
India AI Impact Expo is expected to be visited by more than 2.5 lakh people including international delegates. The event aims to establish new partnerships and generate business opportunities in the global AI ecosystem.
There will be more than 500 sessions
Apart from this, more than 500 sessions will be organized in which more than 3250 experts and speakers will participate. In these sessions, the transformative effects of AI will be discussed and future plans will be discussed so that the benefits of AI reach every citizen. The government believes that this event will prove to be an important step towards giving India a strong identity at the global level in the field of AI.
Pakistan was not invited
India has invited heads of state, ministers, diplomats, technical experts and entrepreneurs from many countries. However, neighboring country Pakistan has not been invited for the event. It was told by the Foreign Ministry that Pakistan has not been invited for this conference.
Experts say a freeze on the federal government’s contentious tobacco excise should be considered, after the Treasury revealed it was modelling the impacts of cigarette prices on demand amid a booming black market.
Lachlan Vass, a research manager at the e61 Institute, said the Treasury’s examination of “price elasticity” and demand for tobacco would be a necessary step to costing potential reforms to the excise.
Jim Chalmers, the treasurer, and Mark Butler, the health minister, have previously rebuffed any suggestion that reducing the sky-high cost of cigarettes was the solution to curbing the black market trade, which has ballooned over the past five years and smashed a $17.8bn hole in the budget since 2020-21.
But when asked at Senate estimates last week why a cut to the excise couldn’t be considered as part of a wider strategy to curb the illegal tobacco trade, Katy Gallagher, the finance minister, left the door open to a change in excise policy.
“The government keeps all of these matters under review,” Gallagher said, adding that “there’s not a single solution” and that Treasury officials were consulting the departments of home affairs and health.
Vass argued there was evidence that the excise policy was failing on multiple fronts. He said there was a case for at least freezing the excise to allow cigarettes to cost less in real terms over time, as part of a wider health and enforcement strategy.
The fact that Treasury officials were modelling the price elasticity of demand for tobacco suggests a policy costing, rather than the more usual budget projections, he said.
“When they do a policy costing they explicitly take into account the elasticity because they have to make a judgment about what this relative increase in the prices of tobacco means for the demand of tobacco,” Vass said.
Black market cigarettes reportedly cost about $10 to $15 a packet, compared to about $40 or more for a legal 20-pack, and account for about half of all tobacco consumed in Australia, according to estimates by the Illicit Tobacco and E-cigarette commissioner (Itec).
The tobacco excise, which has climbed by 60% since 2020 and is set to lift again next month, accounts for three-quarters of the legal cost of a packet of smokes.
The government committed an extra $350m over the past two years to help state authorities battle the illicit trade.
Excise revenue peaked at $16.3bn in 2019-20, but the tax was expected to generate only $5.5bn this financial year, and $4.8bn in the next.
The five years leading up to 2020 saw an even more rapid doubling in the excise, but economists say the level of the tax reached a “tipping point” around the turn of the decade.
Several economists have called for a freeze or reduction in the tobacco excise, with Chris Richardson saying “we got the taxing of tobacco spectacularly wrong”.
“That meant our policies have subsidised the fastest increase in the revenue of organised crime that Australia has ever seen,” Richardson said.
Under questioning about what work the Treasury was undertaking in the context of tobacco excise policy, Diane Brown, a deputy secretary, said: “We have done some work around the elasticity of demand for tobacco to see whether that’s changed, so there is modelling of that type that is going on.”
Becky Freeman, a professor of public health at the University of Sydney and a leading tobacco expert, said she backed freezing the excise at current levels, and that the release of the Itec estimates showing the extraordinary prevalence of illicit smoking has only confirmed her opinion.
“I only support tax increases if they are effective at reducing smoking,” Freeman said.
“And now we know the size of the illicit market and how incredibly cheap those products are, I agree that a freeze at this time makes sense. There wouldn’t be any health gains by raising the price.”
Canadian men’s ice hockey star Tom Wilson was ejected from Sunday’s matchup against France for fighting defenseman Pierre Crinon at the Winter Olympics.
The two traded blows in the third period of the preliminary round after Crinon nailed Canadian center Nathan MacKinnon with an elbow to his head minutes earlier. Crinon was given a two-minute penalty for the hit and apologized to MacKinnon for the blow.
Canada’s Tom Wilson (43) and France’s Pierre Crinon, center, fight in the third period during a preliminary round game of men’s ice hockey between Canada and France at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
But both players found themselves hitting the showers before the game was over. Players don’t receive five-minute major penalties for fighting in the Olympics. Instead, they were both ejected from the game.
Wilson had a goal and an assist in the game, achieving what is known as the “Gordie Howe hat trick.”
The 31-year-old Washington Capitals player is one of a few new players on the Canadian team who weren’t on the 4 Nations Face-Off squad last year. The tournament featured players from Team USA and Canada trading blows nine seconds into their matchup.
France’s Pierre Crinon (7) and Canada’s Tom Wilson (43) fight in the third period during a preliminary round game of men’s ice hockey between Canada and France at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Wilson has 23 goals and 26 assists this season for the Capitals. Washington is fourth in the Metropolitan Division at the Olympics break.
Read More About The 2026 Winter Olympics
On Sunday, Canada defeated France, 10-2.
Canadian star Sidney Crosby recorded three points in the victory, surpassing Jarome Iginla as the Olympic team’s top scorer in Winter Games featuring NHL players.
Canada’s Connor McDavid (97) celebrates scoring a goal with Canada’s Tom Wilson (43) during a preliminary round game of men’s ice hockey between Canada and France at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
If JD Vance’s thuggish speech to last year’s Munich Security Conference, directed at the solar plexus of Europe, marked the moment when a transatlantic breakup started, this weekend’s conference, in a rainy and cold Bavaria, was where the debate about the terms of the divorce settlement got under way.
Marco Rubio, the chosen Washington representative this year, is a diplomat, so he softened the Trumpian tone with references to German beer, the Beatles, Dante and the Mayflower. But his speech was a stern warning that if Europe wanted to continue on its path of civilisational decline, as this US administration sees it, America would not be interested and has different hemispheres on which to focus.
“Yesterday is over,” he said, and then he spelled out what yesterday meant. Mass migration threatening civilisational erasure and the continuity of Christian culture, unfettered trade, massive welfare states, weak defences, climate cults, the outsourcing of sovereignty to international institutions, the rationalisation of a broken status quo by people “shackled with guilt and shame”. Unlike Vance, he did not laud rightwing European populist parties, but he nonetheless wrapped himself in their ideology. His next stop after Munich was Budapest, where Viktor Orbán faces a battle in April to remain in power.
And yet there were some, such as the organiser of the conference, the distinguished German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, who claimed to be reassured by the conditional offer to join this journey into a new era with Donald Trump. If Europeans were reassured by Rubio, it was, as Mark Leonard, the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, observed, “a classic example of the soft bigotry of low expectations”. One reference by the US secretary of state to his country being “a child of Europe” and the older romantics of transatlanticism melted.
But that was not the dominant European mood at this sprawling conference. An iron has entered the European soul about Trump, egged on by the many Democrats attending, and there is a willingness if not to confront him then at least to end the dependence and learn the lessons of the standoff over Greenland.
Danish PM believes Trump still wants Greenland – video
Talk of a stronger independent European pillar of Nato was heard repeatedly, and even adopted by Keir Starmer in his speech pledging greater integration on defence with Europe. His Valentine’s Day speech to Europe was remarkable for two other reasons. He declared the Brexit era was over and, unlike Rubio, he praised societal diversity and a Britain where “people who look different to each other can live peacefully together”. So much for Rubio’s risk of civilisational erasure.
But the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, who is due to go to China in April, said the era of US hegemony was coming to an end, and more quickly than many thought if the US believed it could act alone. “We don’t believe in tariffs and protectionism but in free trade. And we stand by climate agreements and the World Health Organization because we are convinced that we can only solve global challenges together,” he said.
Merz signalled Berlin was already preparing for a smaller American footprint in Europe, and that Germany may at times diverge from the US. “We Europeans are taking precautions. In doing so, we arrive at different conclusions than the administration in Washington,” he said.
Keir Starmer, left, Friedrich Merz and Emmanuel Macron, right, are about to discuss how France and the UK could make their nuclear deterrents available to Europe as a whole. Photograph: Kay Nietfeld/EPA
The dispute over Ukraine and Trump’s leniency towards Vladimir Putin still appals much of Europe and is at the centre of what is driving Trump and leaders on the continent apart. It was an American, Hillary Clinton, who expressed the anger best: “The effort that Putin and Trump are making to profit off the misery and death of the Ukrainian people is a historic error and corrupt to the nth degree … He’s betrayed the west. He’s betrayed human values.”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, now a leading contributor to European defence technology, said “war reveals forms of evil we did not expect” and asked why it was, he felt, Ukraine and not Russia being asked by Trump to make the concessions. He admitted he felt keenly the mistake of Europe’s absence at the negotiating table.
Radoslaw Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, further made the point. He said it was natural for the US to take the lead in the negotiations when it was providing the bulk of the military assistance. “But we are now paying for this war. The US outlay for the war last year was close to zero. We are buying the weapons to be delivered to Ukraine. There is no prospect of a package in Congress. If we are paying, and it is affecting our security and not just Ukraine’s, we deserve a seat at the table.”
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, rebuked Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary general, for telling Europe to dream on if it thought it could defend itself without the US.
At one level, the US and Europe vehemently agree that Europe should take greater responsibility for its own conventional defence. Elbridge Colby, the deputy secretary for war and the nearest thing the Trump administration has to a theoretician, said: “People get it, 2025 was the year to reframe and reorient, and now we have a lot of buy-in. Look at what Germany has been doing with a massive increase in spending.”
But what the US and Europe have only started to debate is what this more independent Europe will be permitted to do by the US. For the moment an interregnum exists.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, in a speech that lost some impact owing to its late scheduling, was the one who spelled out the wider consequences of Europe becoming its own protector. With new responsibilities came new rights, some of which Trump may dislike.
Not only did Europe deserve a place at the Ukraine negotiating table, since it was Europe’s existential challenge, it had a right to speak to Putin directly apart from the US, Macron said. Ideally, the US should be weaned off its belief that a just deal is acceptable in the short term.
In any negotiations about what may replace the collapsed arms control agreements with Russia, Europe could not again be a bystander while the US unilaterally withdrew from agreements such as the INF treaty. He had learned of the US withdrawal from the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty in the newspapers, as did all allies, Macron complained.
Macron argued that to be credible at such a negotiation, Europe needed better deep strike capacities to match those of Russia. European defence firms should not be browbeaten into buying US military hardware. “We will be credible only if we are able to procure and produce what we need, without foreign strings attached.”
Europe could strengthen its own rules on tech and AI. It would be “crazy” if free speech meant giving “the mind, the brain, the heart of my teenagers to the algorithm of big guys with whom I’m not totally sure I share their values”, he said.
Above all, Macron, Merz and Starmer referenced the deeply sensitive discussions on which they are to embark as to how France and the UK could make their nuclear deterrents available to Europe, thus reducing the need for the US nuclear umbrella. It is a hugely expensive and politically fraught undertaking.
Merz made a brief but deliberate reference to the initial talks he had held with Macron, and in an article for Foreign Affairs he said he hoped to agree the first concrete steps this year. Macron was also an enthusiast, pointing to the cooperation with Britain.
If European sovereignty ever extends this far it will make the US uncomfortable. But it is a sign of the times that it is on the agenda. Yesterday is truly over.
