© Yves Herman/Reuters
There is a principle that even the most powerful leaders must be accountable. Increasingly, that is under threat, but it must be defended
It was unsurprising that Benjamin Netanyahu praised Viktor Orbán’s “bold and principled” stand, in response to Hungary’s announcement yesterday that it will leave the international criminal court (ICC). More dismaying is that too few governments seem ready to stand up against impunity at a time when, because of Donald Trump, the very existence of the Hague court is under threat.
Hungary’s leader described the ICC as “a political forum”; the Israeli prime minister, during his defiant visit to Budapest this week, complained of a “corrupt organisation”. That is all logical enough. Four months ago, the court confirmed an arrest warrant for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. He could hardly be expected to praise his own indictment.
Steve Crawshaw is the author of Prosecuting the Powerful: War Crimes and the Battle for Justice. He is a former chief foreign correspondent at the Independent and former UK director at Human Rights Watch
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© Photograph: Bernadett Szabó/Reuters
© Photograph: Bernadett Szabó/Reuters
© Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times
Using the platform was dangerous and wrong – but officials appeared to prioritize shielding themselves from litigation
No senior US government official in the now-infamous “Houthi PC Small Group” Signal chat seemed new to that kind of group, nor surprised by the sensitivity of the subject discussed in that insecure forum, not even when the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, chimed in with details of a coming airstrike. No one objected – not the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who was abroad and using her personal cellphone to discuss pending military operations; not even the presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, who was in Moscow at the time. Yet most of these officials enjoy the luxury of access to secure government communications systems 24/7/365.
Reasonable conclusions may be drawn from these facts. First, Trump’s national security cabinet commonly discusses secret information on insecure personal devices. Second, sophisticated adversaries such as Russia and China intercept such communications, especially those sent or received in their countries. Third, as a result, hostile intelligence services now probably possess blackmail material regarding these officials’ indiscreet past conversations on similar topics. Fourth, as a first-term Trump administration official and ex-CIA officer, I believe the reason these officials risk interacting in this way is to prevent their communications from being preserved as required by the Presidential Records Act, and avoid them being discoverable in litigation, or subject to a subpoena or Freedom of Information Act request. And fifth, no one seems to have feared being investigated by the justice department for what appears to be a violation of the Espionage Act’s Section 793(f), which makes gross negligence in mishandling classified information a felony; the FBI director, Kash Patel, and attorney general, Pam Bondi, quickly confirmed that hunch. Remarkably, the CIA director John Ratcliffe wouldn’t even admit to Congress that he and his colleagues had made a mistake.
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© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Moscow’s refusal highlights the limited progress Donald Trump has made on his promise to end the war
Moscow has described the latest US peace proposals as unacceptable to the Kremlin, highlighting the limited progress Donald Trump has made on his promise to end the war in Ukraine since taking office in January.
Sergei Ryabkov, a foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin, said some of Russia’s key demands were not being addressed by the US proposals to end the war, in comments that marked a rare acknowledgment from the Russian side that talks with the US over Ukraine had stalled in recent weeks.
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© Composite: AP, Getty
© Composite: AP, Getty
Far-right leader says guilty verdict was ‘a nuclear bomb’ used against her as her party president calls for protests
In Kyiv, Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha has offered an update on the talks with the United States over a new minerals deal.
Sybiha told a press conference held with his Lithuanian counterpart, Kestutis Budrys, that one round of consultations had already taken place and that an agreement providing for a strong American business presence in Ukraine would contribute to his country’s security infrastructure, Reuters reported.
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© Photograph: Jumeau Alexis/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Jumeau Alexis/ABACA/REX/Shutterstock
HHS reportedly gives organization 10 days to prove that they’ll comply with orders that ban DEI and other initiatives
Immigration remains a strength for Donald Trump, but his handling of tariffs is getting more negative feedback, according to a poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
About half of US adults approve of Trump’s approach to immigration, the survey shows, but only about four in 10 have a positive view of the way he’s handling the economy and trade negotiations.
The poll indicates that many Americans are still on board with Trump’s efforts to ramp up deportations and restrict immigration. But it also suggests that the Republican president’s threats to impose tariffs – which have been accompanied by tumbling consumer confidence and wild stock market swings – might be erasing his advantage on another issue that he made central to his winning 2024 campaign.
The economy was a drag on then president Joe Biden, who saw the share of Americans who approved of his handling of the economy fall to a low of roughly three in 10 in 2023. Trump drew considerable strength in November from voters who prioritized the economy, but just before he took office in January, an AP-NORC poll found that few Americans had high confidence that he’d make progress on lowering prices in his first year.
Views of Trump’s job performance overall are more negative than positive, the survey found. About four in 10 US adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, and more than half disapprove.
Wall Street is set to join the global sell-off when trading begins in around two hours.
Hopes that this week’s reciprocal tariffs would not be as harsh as feared were dashed over the weekend after US President Trump doubled down on his pursuit of using import levies to ‘make America great again’. With just a couple of days to go until the White House outlines the details of the reciprocal tariffs – the broadest set of restrictions yet to be unveiled by the Trump administration – there is a growing sense of panic in the markets about the scale and implications of the April 2 announcement.
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© Photograph: Jeff Roberson/AP
© Photograph: Jeff Roberson/AP
At the rural orphanage where I volunteered, the place resembled a Dickensian workhouse. The staff’s main tools were antipsychotics and violence. The experience gave me a window into Putin’s Russia
By Howard Amos. Read by Harry Lloyd
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© Photograph: Howard Amos
© Photograph: Howard Amos
US president says his Russian counterpart’s questioning of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s credibility could delay ceasefire
Donald Trump has said he is “pissed off” with Vladimir Putin over his approach to a ceasefire in Ukraine and threatened to levy tariffs on Moscow’s oil exports if the Russian leader does not agree to a truce within a month.
The US president indicated he would levy a 25% or 50% tariff that would affect countries buying Russian oil in a telephone interview with NBC News, during which he also threatened to bomb Iran and did not rule out using force in Greenland.
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© Photograph: Brendan Smialowskiolga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Brendan Smialowskiolga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images
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