Rubio tries to reassure foreign allies in Munich speech
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivers a key note speech at the 62nd Munich Security Conference on February 14, 2026 in Munich, Germany. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a bluntly worded, but ultimately conciliatory, speech Saturday to leaders of Western nations, saying the Trump administration does not want to dismantle its traditional alliances.
However, during his speech at the Munich Security Conference, he called on European countries to adopt the administration’s right-wing polices on mass migration and do more for their own defense.
“Our destiny is and always will be intertwined with you,” Rubio said to prolonged applause. “We do not seek to separate but to reinvigorate an old friendship.”
His speech’s message appeared to be a greatly moderated version of the one given by Vice President JD Vance last year, where he attacked European countries as oppressive.
Rubio repeated many of the same political criticisms that Vance made, telling European countries they and the United States previously had fallen victim to a liberal “dangerous delusion.”
He told them they must get control over mass migration, stop being ashamed of their colonial histories and give up on what he called a “climate cult.”
But he repeated the message that the U.S. wanted to reinvigorate the power of the West “together.”
“And while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe,” Rubio said.
Rubio defended the administration as seeking to unapologetically reinvigorate the West, speaking nostalgically of “great western empires.”
“We do not want our allies to be weak, because that makes us weaker. We do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame,” he said. “We do not want allies to rationalize the broken status quo.”
He said the U.S. has “no interest in being the polite caretaker of managed decline.”
The chairman of the conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, later thanked Rubio for his “message of reassurance.”
“I’m not sure you heard the sigh of relief in this hall,” Ischinger told Rubio on stage.
During an interview with Bloomberg TV directly after the speech, Rubio said he thought he gave the “same message” that Vance delivered at the conference last year.
“I think what the vice president said last year, very clearly, was that Europe had made a series of decisions internally that were threatening to the alliance and ultimately to themselves, not because we hate Europe or we don’t like Europeans, but because, what is it that we fight for? What is it that binds us together?” Rubio said in the interview.
“And ultimately, it’s the fact that we are both heirs to the same civilization, and it’s a great civilization, and it’s one we should be proud of,” Rubio added.
The secretary continued to moderate that message, however, saying his own remarks were meant to explain that, “when we come off as urgent or even critical about decisions that Europe has failed to make or made, it is because we care.”
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns visits Ahmed al Ahmed, who was identified as the bystander who seized a rifle from one of the gunmen during the deadly shooting at Bondi Beach on Sunday, at a hospital in Sydney, Dec. 15, 2025. (@ChrisMinnsMP/X)
(SYDNEY) — A Sydney man is being praised as a hero for disarming one of the alleged shooters in the Hanukkah attack that left 15 dead and 42 injured at Australia’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, as seen in video obtained by ABC News
The video shows a man, identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed, 43, running towards one of the alleged shooters. He’s then seen disarming the alleged gunman before pointing his weapon back at him, prompting him to walk away.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited al-Ahmed in the hospital and told him “your courage is inspiring,” according to video of the visit posted to social media.
“Ahmed, you are an Australian hero. You put yourself at risk to save others, running towards danger on Bondi Beach and disarming a terrorist. In the worst of times, we see the best of Australians. And that’s exactly what we saw on Sunday night. On behalf of every Australian, I say thank you,” Albanese said on X.
The fruit seller was having lunch in the area with a friend when the shooting unfolded and he intervened, according to his brother, Huthaifa.
“I’m really proud about my brother,” he told ABC News.
“He’s a good man. He’s brave,” he said.
The father of two was taken to a hospital, where he was treated for bullet wounds. His brother said he is recovering in the hospital, but is not 100% yet.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns called him a “real-life hero.”
“Last night, his incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk,” Minns posted on Instagram while sharing a photo with al-Ahmed in the hospital.
“It was an honour to spend time with him just now and to pass on the thanks of people across NSW. There is no doubt that more lives would have been lost if not for Ahmed’s selfless courage,” he added.
At Sunday night’s National Menorah Lighting in Washington, D.C., Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the director of advocacy group American Friends of Lubavitch, praised al-Ahmed’s heroism and asked for prayers for his recovery.
“I ask all those across the community and beyond — here, and around the world — to please pray for the recovery of Ahmed al-Ahmed, someone who is not a member of the Jewish community, but gave up his safety and wellbeing to stop one of the gunmen and thus prevent even further loss of life. May he recover speedy and fully,” Shemtov said.
A GoFundMe page for al-Ahmed has raised almost $1.5 million with thousands of donations.
“We’re seeing an outpouring of love for Ahmed al Ahmed following his heroic actions at Bondi Beach,” the site posted on X.
Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman also shared the fundraiser on his X account Sunday, donating $99,999.
Mohamed Fateh al-Ahmed told reporters that his son is “a hero.”
“He served in the police, he has the passion to defend people,” he said.
The victims of Sunday’s mass shooting ranged in ages 10 to 87, and the alleged gunmen are father and son, aged 50 and 24, officials said. Their names have not been released, but authorities said the father is dead and the son was hospitalized.
Six firearms were collected from the scene alongside two improvised explosives, according to officials.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the attack “an act of pure evil, an act of antisemitism” and “an act of terrorism,” in a video shared on his Instagram account.
The flag of Greenland, known locally as “Erfalasorput” flies next to the Church of Our Saviour on March 30, 2025 in Nuuk, Greenland. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — U.S. officials are expected to meet with Danish and Greenlandic counterparts in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, amid President Donald Trump’s continued expressions of intent to acquire the semi-autonomous Arctic territory despite collective opposition in both Copenhagen and Nuuk.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt are set to lead the delegation to meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. Greenland is a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
In Denmark, “this is the big national news,” Jonas Parello-Plesner, a Danish political analyst and former diplomat, told ABC News. “If in the first Trump period the saying was, ‘You should take him seriously, but not literally,’ I think the saying this time around is, ‘You should both take him seriously and literally.'”
Trump first raised the prospect of acquiring the territory during his first term, when Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen dismissed the idea as “absurd.” Trump’s second term has seen the president speak more aggressively about the proposal.
“Even from a year ago, I see a quite stark difference in both Greenlandic and Danish attitudes that this is actually potentially really serious and life changing for the Kingdom of Denmark,” said Parello-Plesner, who is now the executive director at the Copenhagen-based nonprofit Alliance of Democracies Foundation.
Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, told ABC News that the furor is prompting deeper questions among Danes and Greenlanders about their long-standing ties to the U.S.
“Is this who the U.S. is now? A superpower going around, invading its small democratic allies?” he asked. “That’s scary to think of.”
“Just think of what it will do for the American alliance system worldwide,” he added. “What kind of signal it sends — if you’re allied with the U.S., you may be invaded whenever it suits the U.S.”
‘You need ownership’ Trump has repeatedly suggested that U.S. sovereignty over the world’s largest island is necessary to ensure American security and blunt Chinese and Russian influence in the Arctic region.
As a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland is covered by NATO’s collective defense clause. Greenland hosts the U.S. Pituffik Space Base and around 150 American troops, the U.S. having significantly downgraded its footprint from its high point during the Cold War.
A 1951 defense agreement grants the U.S. military access to Greenland, and Danish politicians have repeatedly expressed willingness to work with Washington to expand the American and NATO presence there.
Danish officials have also sought to head off concerns about the supposed vulnerability of the Arctic. Last year, Copenhagen announced a $6.5 billion Arctic defense package in response to U.S. criticism that it had failed to adequately protect Greenland.
But Trump and his administration appear undeterred. “One way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland,” the president told reporters aboard Air Force One this weekend.
“If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will and I’m not letting that happen,” Trump said, before deriding Denmark’s military strength on the island.
“Basically, their defense is two dog sleds,” Trump said. “In the meantime, you have Russian destroyers and submarines and China destroyers and submarines all over the place.”
Asked if there was a deal to be done to avoid further tensions, Trump said he would “love to” because “it would be easier.”
But when pressed, the president said, “I could put a lot of soldiers there right now if I want. But you need more than that. You need ownership.”
Ahead of this week’s meeting, Danish and Greenlandic politicians issued statements again rebuffing any suggestion of a U.S. acquisition of the island, statements which were backed by other European leaders.
“If the United States decides to attack another NATO country, then everything would stop — that includes NATO and therefore post-World War II security,” Frederiksen said in a statement.
“Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland is a member of NATO through the Commonwealth and therefore the defense of Greenland is through NATO,” the government in Nuuk said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen posted a photo to social media showing a message sent to him by Frederiksen.
“Greenland will not be owned by the United States,” the message — written in Greenlandic — said. “Greenland does not want to be ruled by the United States. Greenland does not want to be a part of the United States. We want Greenland to continue to function as part of the Kingdom.”
The leaders of all five political parties holding seats in Greenland’s parliament also released a joint statement. “We do not want to be Americans, we do not want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” they said.
Before heading to the U.S. on Tuesday, Rasmussen — the Danish foreign minister — told reporters in Copenhagen, “Our reason for seeking the meeting we have now been given was to move this whole discussion, which has not become less tense since we last met, into a meeting room where we can look each other in the eye and talk about these things.”
Appealing to ‘the deal-maker’ Olesen, of the Danish Institute for International Studies, said Trump’s most recent comments “should worry Danish politicians.” His apparent dismissal of Copenhagen’s efforts to bolster its Arctic readiness “means that either he hasn’t noticed” or “he doesn’t care. And either way, it’s pretty bad.”
Trump told The New York Times he believed U.S. ownership of Greenland “is what I feel is psychologically necessary for success.” That, too, is “problematic” for Copenhagen, Olesen said. “How do you deal with that?” he asked.
“That’s the conundrum for the Danish and the Greenlandic politicians,” Olesen said, “trying not to provoke Trump too much and trying to give him something.”
“It will be difficult to offer a compromise if all he wants is ownership,” he added.
Parello-Plesner, the former Danish diplomat, said the experiences of other nations during Trump’s second term may offer models.
Trump’s focus on Panama and perceived Chinese overreach produced a proposed deal for a U.S. firm to take control of two ports there owned by a Hong Kong conglomerate. The president described the deal as “reclaiming the Panama Canal.”
José Raúl Mulino, the president of Panama, addressed Trump’s comments about the Panama Canal in a post on X last March, saying in part: “President Trump is lying again. The Panama Canal is not in the process of being recovered, and this was certainly not a topic of discussion in our conversations with Secretary Rubio or anyone else. On behalf of Panama and all Panamanians, I reject this new affront to the truth and to our dignity as a nation.”
In Ukraine, Kyiv alleviated U.S. pressure by agreeing to a rare earth minerals sharing deal as part of the U.S.-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund.
“There’s also a very pragmatic side to Trump — the deal maker,” Parello-Plesner said. “I think our side needs to give him something to work with,” he added.
That could mean fresh commitments on American military deployments in Greenland, a deal related to the territory’s untapped mineral wealth or a pledge to do more to block autocratic states from asserting their Arctic ambitions, Parello-Plesner said.
It is unclear what might appeal to the U.S. side, he continued. “We’ve seen for 30 years that the U.S. has just wanted to cut down on the presence up there and only uses it for limited missile defense purposes,” he said.
Regarding Greenland’s believed mineral wealth, Parello-Plesner said the U.S. government and private companies have been largely uninterested given the territory’s inhospitable weather and terrain, extraction challenges and global market forces.
A symbolic win might be enough to take the heat out of Trump’s push, Olesen said.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how far Danish and Greenlandic politicians feel they can go in order to avoid being humiliated, in order to avoid handing over the Greenlandic underground to a bully,” Olesen continued.
“But then again, the stakes are so high, so I wouldn’t rule it out, and I wouldn’t rule out that if this is something that could solve the crisis.”
In the meantime, both analysts said Copenhagen and Nuuk are likely to focus on bolstering the image of domestic unity, European solidarity, backing from the U.S. Congress and NATO-led Arctic security.
“The Trump policy line is not invulnerable,” Olesen said, noting pushback from U.S. voters and members of Congress — including prominent Republicans.
“At some point, Trump may decide that it’s not worth the bother anymore, and in that case, it would probably be wise to offer him some way to save face and get out of it,” he said.
But months of back and forth over Greenland have already done significant damage to transatlantic sentiment in Denmark, Parello-Plesner said, in a country he said has long prided itself on broad support for NATO and for close relations with the U.S. Danish forces, for example, sustained a comparable per capita casualty rate as the U.S. in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.
That strength of feeling, he said, “has dropped tremendously.”
A dingo walks on the beach, Fraser Island, also known as K’gari, in Queensland, Australia (STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)
(K’GARI, Australia) — A 19-year-old Canadian woman was found dead on an Australian beach surrounded by a pack of dingoes, according to police.
The cause of death remains under investigation in the “shocking” incident, according to Queensland Police.
Two passersby found the teen’s body on Monday morning local time on the island of K’gari, located off the coast of Queensland, police said. There was a small pack of dingoes around her body at the time, according to Queensland Police Inspector Paul Algie, calling it a “traumatic and horrific scene.”
“I can confirm there was marking on her body consistent with having been touched and interfered with by the dingoes,” Algie said during a press briefing on Monday, though he noted it was too early to speculate on the cause of death, pending the autopsy report.
Algie said police are investigating all possibilities in the death.
“We simply can’t confirm whether this young lady drowned or died as a result of being attacked by dingoes,” he said.
The woman had been working for the past several weeks at a backpackers’ hostel on K’gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, police said.
Police said she is believed to have gone for a swim alone on the beach, near a popular shipwreck, around 5 a.m. local time Monday and was found dead over an hour later.
An autopsy is expected to be conducted on Wednesday, police said.
K’gari, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a popular tourist destination. Dingoes are protected on the island as a native species.
The last fatal dingo attack on K’gari was 25 years ago, according to Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour. In that incident, a 9-year-old boy died.
“This is a shocking tragedy that has really affected our community,” Seymour told the Australian network 9News amid the investigation into the 19-year-old’s death.
“Dingoes are an essential part of this wilderness on K’gari, it’s part of why people go there — to escape, be part of a World Heritage wilderness,” he said. “There are dangers there.”
