(NEW YORK) — Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is due back in court Tuesday when his attorney will attempt to convince a judge to invalidate certain DNA evidence that’s never been used in New York state courts.
Heuermann, who was arrested in July 2023, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of seven women whose remains were found discarded on Long Island between 1993 and 2011.
His attorneys have urged the judge to preclude evidence pertaining to nuclear DNA results obtained from hairs recovered from six victims: Maureen Brainard Barnes, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
The DNA match resulted from a technique known as whole genome sequencing, which hasn’t been subject to an admissibility hearing in any New York court.
Prosecutors consented to Tuesday’s hearing but have argued the defense motion to dismiss the evidence should be denied because the technique is “generally accepted in the scientific community” and is based on technology “relied upon in a wide variety of scientific and forensic settings.”
Defense attorney Michael Brown has said the California lab where the DNA testing was done is a for-profit business that is not accredited in New York.
Prosecutors have expressed confidence the DNA evidence would be admissible.
“For over thirty years, New York State courts have continuously adapted to embrace advancements in DNA technology,” assistant district attorney Andrew Lee said. “The advancement of forensic science and nuclear DNA analysis involving Whole Genome Sequencing has allowed law enforcement to now link genetic profiles consistent with the defendant, and/or individuals who have resided with him, to six of the seven victims through hairs found at the crime scene and/or on the victims. The People intend to introduce such evidence of defendant’s guilt at trial, which will aid the jury in its determination.”
In addition to DNA, prosecutors are also relying on evidence recovered on some of the 350 electronic devices seized from Heuermann that they’ve said include his “significant collection of violent, bondage and torture pornography” dating back to at least 1994. This online collection included images of mutilation and tying up women with ropes, two things prosecutors said are consistent with injuries inflicted on Mack and how she was bound.
(LONDON) — Dozens of officials in the U.S. Agency for International Development’s humanitarian aid bureau received termination notices over the weekend, despite prior assurances from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the agency’s “core lifesaving medicine, medical services, food, shelter and substance assistance” would be preserved.
Beginning late Friday night, several now-former employees at the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance received termination letters from personnel officers at USAID, according to copies of those letters obtained by ABC News.
BHA is the government’s lead federal agency for international emergency disaster relief, working closely with the military to provide humanitarian aid in the wake of earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes and other global natural disasters.
Serena Simeoli, a Humanitarian Aid Adviser to the Military at BHA, told ABC News that she received a termination letter on Friday night, but that it was not addressed to her and did not include her name or contract number — so she remains “confused” about what to do.
Simeoli said her small team of some 60 employees had assisted during “sudden-onset disasters, complex emergencies,” including the earthquakes in Haiti and Syria, typhoons in the Philippines, hurricanes in the Caribbean, and the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Without BHA, “it is going to be very challenging” for the U.S. to play a meaningful role in global emergency relief, “and I think I’m a little scared to think how it might go without us,” Simeoli said.
“The work that we do it matters, and we won’t know how much it matters until we’re presented with another catastrophic disaster,” she warned.
“I’ve devoted so much of my life to this organization … I would work around the clock because I believed in what we were doing,” Simeoli said. “It’s pretty painful to see and to be a part of what’s been happening.”
Another former BHA official said some colleagues reported receiving multiple termination notices, including some during the overnight hours this weekend.
That official, a former Marine, said that during his tenure with USAID he had responded to some of the world’s most challenging natural disasters .
“It makes me seriously question why I dedicated my entire adult life to carrying water in the most dangerous places in the world for our government and its people,” said the person, who asked not to be identified out of fear of retaliation.
Rubio wrote in a late January memo that he would grant an emergency waiver to allow USAID’s humanitarian missions to continue — but noted that the “resumption is temporary in nature.”
A State Department representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is hosting French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Monday, with Russia and Ukraine atop the agenda as the world marks three years since Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Trump said he believed the war could end “soon” as he and Macron sat for a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office.
“I think we could end it within weeks — if we’re smart,” Trump told reporters. “If we’re not smart, it’ll keep going and we’ll keep losing.”
The two leaders were also holding a news conference in the East Room, where they can expect to be peppered with more questions about the status of peace talks.
Trump said he will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy soon, signaling the U.S. and Ukraine were “close” to a deal giving the U.S. access to profits from Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources and that Zelenskyy would come to Washington to sign it. Trump has demanded the access as a way for Ukraine to pay back U.S. aid during the war.
“I will be meeting with President Zelenskyy. In fact, he may come this week or next week to sign the agreement,” Trump said.
Trump also said he would meet with Putin, but did not elaborate on a timeline. Trump said he is having serious discussions with Russia about “economic development deals” in addition to ending the war in Ukraine — but did not elaborate on what exactly those deals could look like.
The U.S. president was asked if he would call Putin a “dictator” — as he did with Zelenskyy last week. Trump notably declined to do so.
“I don’t use those words lightly,” Trump responded. “I think we’re going to see how it all works out.”
Macron, during a Q&A on his social media last week, said he would tell Trump: “You can’t be weak in the face of President Putin. It’s not you, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest. How can you then be credible in the face of China if you’re weak in the face of Putin?”
Macron convened European leaders for emergency meetings on Ukraine in Paris last week, as top U.S. officials held talks with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine and Europe.
Macron said France and its partners agreed Ukraine must always be involved and its rights respected in negotiations and that security concerns of Europeans must be taken into account.
“Following discussions over the past few days with European colleagues and allies, we are committed to ensuring that peace returns to Ukraine in a just, solid, and lasting manner, and that the security of Europeans is strengthened through all upcoming negotiations,” Macron posted on X on Sunday ahead of his trip to Washington.
The Trump administration’s increased pressure on Ukraine to resolve the conflict, with Trump calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” and falsely blaming Ukraine for Russia’s ongoing assault. Trump escalated his criticism last week, when he said Ukraine has “no cards” to play as negotiations unfold.
Meanwhile, Trump said he’s had “good talks” with Putin. Trump has not appeared to make any demands of Russia as negotiations unfold, while he’s ruled out NATO membership and a return to Ukraine’s 2014 borders.
The posture marks a seismic shift in U.S. foreign policy, and comes as the Trump administration brandishes an “America First” agenda that could upend traditional transatlantic alliances.
Vice President JD Vance caused a stir when he took an aggressive tone toward Europe’s leadership on immigration, free speech and more as he spoke at the Munich Security Conference. Vance told U.S. allies the greatest threat to Europe was “within” and not Russia or China.
Vance doubled down on those themes in his speech at CPAC last week. Asked there about the future of U.S. alliances on the continent, Vance said they would continue to have “important” partnerships with Europe.
“But I really do think the strength of those alliances is going to depend on whether we take our societies in the right direction … That friendship is based on shared values,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — A U.S. appeals court has upheld the conviction of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, who is serving more than 11 years in prison for defrauding investors with false claims about her company’s blood-testing technology.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the fraud convictions, sentences and $452 million restitution order for Holmes and her second in command, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, who was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Marocco, the Trump administration official tasked with the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), at a private “listening session” held at the State Department earlier this month with dozens of aid groups — some on the brink of financial collapse — opened the proceedings by making one request: that everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Inside the Loy Henderson Conference Room, representatives from aid organizations, industry groups, and foreign embassies — reeling from the administration’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid and the unraveling of USAID — dutifully rose to their feet.
The aid groups were there in the hope that Marocco would provide answers on the future of foreign assistance. After the Pledge, Marocco outlined the Trump administration’s foreign aid plans, defending what he called a “total zero-based review,” and arguing that some areas of foreign aid required “radical change” before taking questions from those in attendance, according to an audio recording of the private meeting obtained by ABC News.
‘Nefarious actors in the agencies’
Multiple sources who attended the Feb. 13 meeting described the mood in the room as “deeply uncomfortable,” saying that some of the attendees who were representing groups teetering on bankruptcy were left “traumatized” by the tone and the lack of specific details.
During the discussion, a representative for World Vision, a global Christian humanitarian organization, asked Marocco about the impact of the freeze, noting that aid groups like his had been forced to bankroll U.S. government-funded programs with private money while awaiting overdue payments to be unpaused.
“Will the spigot open? We’ve gotten waivers, but the PMS system isn’t operating, so we’re bankrolling U.S. government-funded programs out of private money,” said Edward Brown, the vice president of World Vision, which provides poverty alleviation, disaster relief, and child welfare in nearly 100 countries.
Marocco responded that following President Donald Trump’s executive order halting foreign aid, some transactions were still being processed, prompting his team to “seize control” of the payment system to stop them — leaving some groups without payments that, weeks later, had still had not arrived.
“As far as payment, one of the reasons that there have been problems with some of the payments is because, despite the president’s executive order, despite the secretary’s guidance, we still had nefarious actors in the agencies that were trying to push out hundreds of illegal payments,” Marocco said. “And so we were able to seize control of that, stop them, take control of some of those people, and make sure that that money was not getting out the door.”
Marocco suggested that payments for organizations with existing contracts would resume the following Tuesday.
“I feel confident we’re going to have that pretty good by Tuesday of next week,” he said. “That does not mean everybody’s going to be caught up on everything that they want. But I think that our payment system will probably be fluid at that point.”
But Tuesday came and went, and many groups say they were still on the edge of bankruptcy — prompting some to escalate their legal battle against the administration.
On Monday, several USAID officials told ABC News that the payment system Marocco said would be fully restored was now technically operational, but that funding was still moving at an extremely slow pace and that many of the programs that were granted waivers to continue operations had still not received any money.
USAID officials said the lack of funding has rendered many of the exempted programs inoperative. Some have resorted to using stockpiled resources, but because these programs have been cut off from federal support for weeks, most report that they have few funds left and don’t anticipate they will be able to function for much longer, according to the officials.
On Friday, after a federal judge cleared the way for the administration to proceed with its plan to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job in the U.S. and around the world, the Trump administration moved forward with its effort to dismantle USAID, telling all but a fraction of staffers worldwide that they were on leave as of Monday.
In a court-ordered affidavit filed last Tuesday, Marocco wrote that the agency “has authorized at least 21 payments” for grants, loans, and other foreign aid executed before Trump’s inauguration “that are in total worth more than $250 million and are expected to be paid this week.”
As of Monday, it was not clear whether those payments had been made.
When reached for comment, World Vision would not confirm to ABC News if payments had resumed, but told ABC News they were “complying with the executive order that pauses U.S. foreign assistance funding — with potential waivers for emergency food and lifesaving humanitarian assistance — for the next 90 days, while programs are reviewed for alignment with the current administration’s foreign policy.”
‘What we consider to be legitimate’
In one tense moment during the listening session, a senior Democratic Senate staffer pressed Marocco on whether, once the payments resumed, they would include reimbursements for work incurred before the Jan. 24 freeze.
“When payments resume, will they include work incurred before Jan. 24 in the payments forthcoming on Tuesday?” asked the staffer, who, when reached for comment by ABC News, asked not to be named our of fear of retribution.
Marocco would not guarantee that government-contracted work that occurred before the freeze would be reimbursed, stating that the Trump administration would only cover “legitimate expenses” — and noting that the administration’s definition of a legitimate expense may differ from the groups in the room.
“We will be looking at those,” Marocco said. “What we consider to be legitimate may not be the same thing that other people consider to be legitimate, but we’re going to.”
The staffer attempted to follow up, arguing that if the work had been incurred before the freeze, “it was legitimate at the time, right?”
“We’ve moved on to the next person,” Marocco responded.
In his affidavit filed on Tuesday, Marocco conveyed the scope and status of the government’s aid freeze. He wrote that, since Trump signed the executive order for a 90-day freeze, USAID had terminated nearly 500 grants and contracts. He said the agency “has not quantified” the total cost of those programs.
As of Tuesday, the State Department had terminated more than 750 foreign assistance-funded grants and contracts of its own and had suspended nearly 7,000 more, Marocco wrote.
A ‘cycle of dependency’
Marocco used the meeting with the organizations to paint a dire picture of U.S. foreign aid, claiming it had “devolved into a fiscal cycle of dependency, of presumption, arrogance, and frankly, folly, that is just astonishing.” He dismissed past reform efforts as ineffective, arguing that officials had merely “nibbled around the edges” rather than addressing what he saw as systemic failures.
He insisted the review was necessary to force difficult conversations about “what these programs are actually doing” and whether they should continue at all. And he framed the overhaul as part of President Trump’s broader effort to reshape Washington’s approach to foreign assistance.
“The American people deserve better. They require better. And President Trump has promised better,” he said, criticizing aid decisions made “behind closed doors in Congress, in small groups in Washington, D.C.”
Marocco told those gathered that the administration’s review extended beyond USAID and would encompass a range of federal agencies, including NASA, the Patent and Trademark Office, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
“If there is a tax dollar that is going out to a foreigner, we need to gain control of that and understand what it is we’re trying to achieve with our partners,” he said. “We want to identify all of that. We want to fix it. That’s the goal.”
Marocco made clear that the new foreign aid structure would be tied to Trump’s political priorities.
“With the Secretary of State, you will be in line,” Marocco said. “The foreign assistance review, you will follow the president’s foreign policy objectives. Or you will not be spending money abroad.”
He told the aid groups in the room they needed to justify their programs.
“You need to think about convincing someone — perhaps one of the women who is in my mother’s Bible study,” he said. “You need to think about somebody who’s working at a McDonald’s in Mississippi. You need to think about a grad student in Harlem.”
The Trump administration has received widespread condemnation from Democrats in Congress over its effort to slash foreign aid programs. “What Trump and Musk have done is not only wrong, it’s illegal,” Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said earlier this month during a news conference outside USAID headquarters. “USAID was established by an act of Congress, and it can only be disbanded by an act of Congress. Stopping this will require action by the courts and for Republicans to show up and show courage and stand up for our country.”
‘Catastrophic’ harm
The Feb. 13 meeting came as the legal battle over the aid freeze was escalating. Last week, a coalition of aid groups asked a federal judge to intervene, arguing that the freeze violated existing funding agreements and had caused “catastrophic” harm to their humanitarian missions. U.S. District Judge Amir Ali issued a temporary restraining order halting the freeze, but aid organizations said their funding remained locked, leaving them scrambling to keep operations afloat.
Late Tuesday, Trump administration attorneys filed court papers arguing that their interpretation of the judge’s order allows the freeze to largely remain in place. The aid groups fired back Wednesday, urging the court to enforce the ruling.
“The court should not brook such brazen defiance of the express terms of its order,” they wrote in the filing.
Judge Ali, a Biden-era appointee, wrote Thursday that while Trump administration officials had “not complied” with his order, he would not hold them in contempt of court.
But he warned those officials not to buck what he characterized as his “clear” directive to lift their “blanket freeze” on aid disbursements.
(ROME and LONDON) — Pope Francis’ “critical clinical condition” has shown a “slight improvement,” the Vatican said on Monday, as the 88-year-old pontiff remains hospitalized following a pneumonia diagnosis.
“In view of the complexity of the clinical picture, the doctors are still cautious about the prognosis,” the Vatican press office said in a statement.
The office said there were “no episodes of asthmatic respiratory crisis” on Monday, and some laboratory tests “have improved.”
“Oxygen therapy continues, albeit with slightly reduced flows and oxygen percentage,” the office said.
Francis was “resting” on Monday morning after spending his 10th night in the hospital, the Vatican press office said earlier in the day. He resumed some work activities Monday afternoon, the office said.
The pope has been eating normally, is awake and is continuing his medical therapies, Vatican sources told ABC News. He’s also in good humor and isn’t suffering from pain, the sources said.
“Pope Francis thanks all the people of God who have gathered in these days to pray for his health,” the Vatican said.
Francis has been hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since Feb. 14 following a bout with bronchitis.
The pontiff, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, underwent another round of clinical tests on Sunday morning, Vatican sources told ABC News.
Officials said Sunday he remained in critical condition.
The pontiff was diagnosed with pneumonia on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
A rosary will be said in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Monday, led by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. That rosary is seen as a way for the church to express its “closeness to the Pope and the sick,” said the director of the Vatican press office, Matteo Bruni.
President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron wished the pope well during remarks from the White House on Monday.
“We wish him well, we want him to get well,” Trump said when asked about the leaders’ message to the pope. “It’s a very serious situation, but we do want him to get well, if it’s possible.”
“We do think about the pope and we wish him recovery and a prompt recovery,” Macron added.
Ukrainians have suffered a decline in physical and mental health with a need for mental health care, trauma care and rehabilitation, according to the global health agency.
Thousands of people have been injured, and both children and adults are experiencing serious medical conditions and psychological trauma, studies have shown.
“Being a doctor in wartime means returning home after each shift, wishing the war had never happened and praying for its swift end,” Olha Zavyalova, an emergency physician and surgeon from the Dnipro region in southeastern Ukraine, said in a statement.
“People are exhausted — both the patients and the health care workers. Yet, as medical professionals, we do not have the luxury of being tired. Our patients need us to keep going and we must push through the fatigue to continue delivering the care they deserve,” Zavyalova said.
An October 2024 assessment from the WHO European Region found that 68% of Ukrainians reported a decline in health compared to before the war. Mental health concerns were the most prevalent health issue, reported by 46% of those surveyed, the WHO found.
This was followed by mental health disorders — such as anxiety and depression — reported by 41% of those surveyed, and neurological disorders reported by 38%.
Access to health and medical care continues to be a struggle, with one in four people reporting a decrease in access to medical services since the start of the war in February 2022, according to the WHO.
In front-line regions, including the most affected areas, only about 50% of residents have been able to access medical care compared to 57% in the capital, Kyiv, and 60% in the rest of the country, according to the October 2024 report.
Internally displaced people are among the most affected when it comes to lack of medical care. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, 4 million Ukrainians were internally displaced as of February 2025.
The WHO said 13% of internally displaced people lack access to primary health care facilities compared to 6% of those not displaced, and 9% don’t have access to a family doctor compared to 4% of those not displaced.
The October 2024 WHO report also found the cost of medicines and treatment to be a barrier to accessing care, with 35% postponing medical care due to financial challenges.
Additionally, there is a need for trauma care and rehabilitation, according to the WHO. The agency, citing the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, said that by mid-2024, 100,000 amputations had been performed due to the war. Meanwhile, there is a severe shortage of trauma specialists, prosthetics and rehabilitation services, the WHO said.
The WHO also warned about attacks on the health care system and workers. Since the start of the war, the agency said it has documented at least 2,254 attacks, with 42 attacks so far in 2025 alone, which resulted in 12 injuries and three deaths.
Amid the attacks was damage to the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv — one of the most well-respected children’s hospitals in the country — when five Ukrainian cities fell under attack in July 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the time. At least two people were killed in the attack on the hospital, including one female physician, and at least seven children were injured, according to officials.
In November 2022, a newborn baby was killed when a missile strike hit a maternity hospital in the town of Vilniansk in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, the local mayor told ABC News at the time.
The WHO said it’s focused on rebuilding Ukraine’s health care system, including installing primary health care clinics in affected regions and providing critical care including immunizations and mental health care, as well as treating HIV, tuberculosis and antimicrobial resistance.
“Health is the foundation of peace and recovery. Rebuilding health systems means restoring hope, dignity and securing the future,” the WHO wrote in its release.
Camilo Freedman/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — Delta passengers were forced to evacuated via slides at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Monday after haze or smoke was observed in the plane, according to the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Delta Flight 876 was en route from Atlanta to Columbia, South Carolina, on Monday morning when “haze inside the aircraft was observed,” a Delta spokesperson said. The FAA said “the crew reported possible smoke in the flightdeck.”
The Boeing 717 aircraft — which had 94 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants on board — returned to Atlanta and landed safely, according to Delta and the FAA.
Atlanta Fire Rescue helped passengers deplane, according to the airport.
“There is a moderate impact to operations at this time,” according to the airport.
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and people, and we apologize to our customers for the experience,” a Delta spokesperson said.
An undated photo of 4-year-old Chosen Morris who died after accidentally shooting himself in Davenport, Florida. Davenport Police Department
(DAVENPORT, Fla.) — A 4-year-old boy named Chosen Morris has died after accidentally shooting himself in the head with a handgun he found in his parents’ car, according to authorities in Florida.
The “tragic accident” unfolded Friday evening as the Morris family prepared to go out for pizza, the Davenport Police Department said.
Chosen’s dad, Robert Morris, was in the bathroom getting ready and his mom, Quinta Morris, was on the computer in her bedroom, police said.
Quinta Morris said she heard a “pop” and assumed her children broke something, according to police. She went to the living room to talk to them, but only her 7-year-old and 11-year-old were there, police said.
Quinta Morris started looking for Chosen and noticed the door to the garage was open, police said. In the garage, she found Chosen in the driver’s seat of the car with a gunshot wound to his head, police said.
Chosen’s parents rushed him to the hospital where he died on Saturday afternoon, police said.
Authorities believe Chosen was excited about the outing and went to the car to wait for his family, and then found the handgun under the driver’s seat, police said. Robert Morris owns the Smith & Wesson M&P .40 caliber gun, police said.
“This is a tragic accident,” Davenport Police Chief Steve Parker said in a statement. “As a father and grandfather, I can’t imagine what Mr. and Mrs. Morris are going through right now. Our prayers are certainly with the Morris family as they endure this heartbreaking tragedy.”
“It is important that gun owners know where their firearms are at all times, and when not in possession of their firearm, ensure it is properly secured with some type of lock, whether it is a trigger lock or stored in a locked cabinet or box,” Parker told ABC News via email.
There were at least 411 unintentional shootings by children in 2023, marking the worst year on record since Everytown’s tracking started in 2015. There were at least 360 unintentional shootings by children last year, causing 136 fatalities, according to Everytown.
There have been at least 21 unintentional shootings so far this year, resulting in 11 deaths, Everytown said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is hosting French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Monday, with Russia and Ukraine set to be atop the agenda as the world marks three years since Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
Trump and Macron participated in a call with other G7 leaders before a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office. After they will hold a news conference in the East Room, where they can expect to be peppered with questions about the status of peace talks.
Macron convened European leaders for emergency meetings on Ukraine in Paris last week, as top U.S. officials held talks with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without Ukraine and Europe.
Following those meetings, Macron said France and its partners agreed Ukraine must always be involved and its rights respected in negotiations and that security concerns of Europeans must be taken into account.
“Following discussions over the past few days with European colleagues and allies, we are committed to ensuring that peace returns to Ukraine in a just, solid, and lasting manner, and that the security of Europeans is strengthened through all upcoming negotiations,” Macron posted on X on Sunday ahead of his trip to Washington.
The Trump administration’s increased pressure on Ukraine to resolve the conflict, with Trump calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and falsely blaming Ukraine for Russia’s ongoing assault. Trump escalated his criticism last week, when he said Ukraine has “no cards” to play as negotiations unfold.
Meanwhile, Trump said he’s had “good talks” with Putin. Trump has not appeared to make any demands of Russia as negotiations unfold, while he’s ruled out NATO membership and a return to Ukraine’s 2014 borders.
The posture marks a seismic shift in U.S. foreign policy, and comes as the Trump administration brandishes an “America First” agenda that could upend traditional transatlantic alliances.
Vice President JD Vance caused a stir when he took an aggressive tone toward Europe’s leadership on immigration, free speech and more as he spoke at the Munich Security Conference. Vance told U.S. allies the greatest threat to Europe was “within” and not Russia or China.
Vance doubled down on those themes in his speech at CPAC last week. Asked there about the future of U.S. alliances on the continent, Vance said they would continue to have “important” partnerships with Europe.
“But I really do think the strength of those alliances is going to depend on whether we take our societies in the right direction … That friendship is based on shared values,” he said.
