In a war dominated by the unexpected, few imagined Ukraine’s fourth year at war would so firmly question the security of all of Europe.

The most basic tenets have crumbled in this war​. Russia’s military superpower status has weakened, and the Kremlin’s inner circle overcame an uprising. Drones have altered warfare permanently, and rendered warehouses of tanks near-useless.

The United States has flipped from a moralistic benefactor to a transactional predator of Kyiv’s resources. The president of Ukraine has survived physically yet now must deal with a revisionist version of events purveyed by a White House that just over a month ago was his steadfast backer.

Flippant or spontaneous as it may have been, US Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth’s remark in Brussels that the US was no longer the guarantor of European security has overturned eighty years of norms on the continent. Perhaps it was a bluff to boost European security spending, but you cannot bluff in nuclear security.

The Kremlin will have heard about the weakness in the transatlantic alliance and will be plotting accordingly. In one sentence, Hegseth turned a conflict, in which Moscow had been roundly diminished and humiliated for three years, into the chaotic re-ordering of continental security, in which Moscow may somehow dominate to its west.

With Moscow tied up in Ukraine, the security of wider Europe is for now an ethereal policy debate – an unwelcome distraction when contrasted with the relentless daily horror of the actual fight. After a week of social media tirades and tense microphone diplomacy, the gruesome battle has somehow faded into the background. Yet the acute horror is real.

A Ukrainian company commander serving inside Russia’s Kursk region said his men had to regularly dig new positions in the frozen ground as they were so accurately targeted by waves of Russian drones. “I don’t really believe in a quick end to the war or in peace in general”, he said after three years of fighting. “I am very exhausted, so is everyone here. Nothing changes for us here because of political statements.”

Oleksandr Nastenko, a battalion commander in the 475th assault brigade, said talk of peace had impacted recruitment as potential soldiers were saying “maybe it will all be over in a month or two, I’ll wait.” He said talk of Ukraine collapsing after six months without American aid was premature. “We will somehow figure it out, there is no smell of capitulation.”

Yet a form of capitulation has haunted the opening salvos of the Trump administration’s negotiating plan – Hegseth gifting Moscow with the prospect of Ukraine not joining NATO or recovering territory, before talks had apparently begun. The White House’s revisionism has become an ugly extension of their apparent race to purse a détente with the Kremlin almost at all costs.

Russia’s parallel narrative – that it was forced into action to prevent NATO expansion, and Ukraine must be de-nazified – had been overwhelmed by the sheer weight of its frailty on the frontlines and isolation. It had begun to sound silly – the wobbly excuses of the loser. Yet it has suddenly gained a new lease of life, parroted in part by the world’s most powerful man and his inner circle. It is a potent sign of how the war continues to turn basic norms upside down, that a pressing question on its third anniversary is: “Who is feeding Trump these Kremlin talking points?” Russian state television seems to think it is Russian President Vladimir Putin himself in his conversations with Trump.

Western unity has been an outlier during the war: European nations often differed in how suspicious of Russia they instinctively were, but they spoke as one since Moscow’s full invasion. Yet we now face the world’s pre-eminent power somehow convinced Russia might be a potential ally, and it is their European democratic allies who are the tyrannical problem. It is naïve for anyone in Washington to imagine a future in which Moscow drops its main financier and neighbor, China, in favor of an alliance with the US. Instead, they project frailty at a time when Beijing is actively weighing its next moves on Taiwan, and at times seems the most stable, serious power globally.

On Sunday, Zelensky said he would step aside if it meant peace for Ukraine. The distressing fact is his fraught relationship with Trump risks becoming an obstacle to almost everything. Yet the alternative is worse still. An election in wartime or handover to an anointed successor would simply increase false claims of Zelensky’s illegitimacy.

The dichotomy of the White House’s position is evident again in the inflated casualty numbers they claim is the reason the war must end (millions have not died, as Trump suggests, but possibly hundreds of thousands). This onus on preserving life is not compatible with a peace deal that weakens Ukraine’s defense and risks Russia refitting and coming back for more ground next year. More will die if peace fails or is weak.

The ugliest truth of this moment also needs saying out loud so Europe can be ready. The evidence of our eyes and ears is, as the biggest war in Europe since the forties drags into its fourth year, that Trump favors Putin.

New Zealand raised fresh concerns Monday over nearby live-fire drills conducted by Chinese warships armed with “extremely capable” weapons, an unprecedented show of firepower last week that analysts say are part of Beijing’s ongoing plan to build a blue-water navy with global reach.

A Chinese Navy formation held two live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand on Friday and Saturday, prompting passenger planes to change course mid-flight and rattling officials in both countries.

Judith Collins, the defense minister of New Zealand, said the drills were unprecedented.

“We’ve certainly never seen a task force or task group of this capability undertaking that sort of work. So it is certainly a change,” Collins told public broadcaster Radio New Zealand (RNZ) on Monday.

“The weapons they have are extremely capable. One has 112 vertical launch cells and has reported anti-ship ballistic missile range of 540 nautical miles,” she said.

Chinese state media have suggested that Western countries should get used to such military exercises in their nearby waters.

Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert, told nationalist tabloid the Global Times that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy will increasingly conduct exercises not only near China’s shores but also in international waters.

As drills like these will become more frequent, some countries should adjust to this trend, Song told the newspaper.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that while China’s drills complied with international law, Beijing “could have given more notice.”

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she sought an explanation from her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi when the two met in Johannesburg on Saturday on the sidelines of a G20 foreign ministers gathering.

China’s Defense Ministry slammed Australia on Sunday for “hyping up” the drills and making “unreasonable accusations.”

Wu Qian, a spokesperson for the ministry, said China had issued safety notices in advance and that the exercises conducted in international waters complied with international law and did not affect aviation safety.

But Collins said China’s warning was given at too short notice.

“There was a warning to civil aviation flights, that was basically a very short amount of notice, a couple of hours, as opposed to what we would consider best practice, which is 12-24 hours’ notice, so that aircraft are not having to be diverted when they’re on the wing,” she told RNZ.

Collins added that the ships were currently about 280 nautical miles east of Tasmania and had slightly changed their formations, while being closely monitored by a New Zealand navy frigate.

New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is scheduled to visit China on Tuesday at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday hailed Ukraine’s “absolute heroism” as he marked the third anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, and as European leaders began arriving in the capital Kyiv in a show of support for the embattled country.

“Three years of resistance. Three years of gratitude. Three years of absolute heroism of Ukrainians. I am proud of Ukraine!” Zelensky wrote on X alongside a video showing scenes from the frontline and Ukrainian civilians supporting war efforts during the grinding conflict.

“I thank everyone who defends and supports it. Everyone who works for Ukraine. And may the memory of all those who gave their lives for our state and people be eternal.”

The anniversary comes with Ukraine facing great uncertainty about its future after US President Donald Trump pivoted toward Russia and US officials insist that Europe can no longer rely on Washington for its defense.

European leaders arrived in Ukraine on Monday, according to social media posts and images posted by Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne.

Some roads in the center of Kyiv were blocked and police officers were deployed.

“On the 3rd anniversary of Russia’s brutal invasion, Europe is in Kyiv,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a post on X, alongside a video that showed her meeting officials at a railway station with European Council President Antonio Costa.

“We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe,” she said. “In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake.”

Images posted by Suspilne on its Telegram channel showed Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also disembarking from a train and greeting officials.

Meanwhile, Russia launched another barrage of attack drones across Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.

Moscow launched 185 attack drones on Ukraine, of which 113 had been downed and another 71 disappeared from radar after being jammed, Ukraine’s Air Force said Monday.

The attack had “affected” Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Kyiv and Khmelnytsky regions, it said on Telegram, without saying whether it had caused damage or casualties.

The attack comes a day after Ukraine faced its largest drone assault since Russia’s invasion, with 267 drones launched, out of which 138 were intercepted, according to Ukrainian authorities on Sunday.

Ukraine’s armed forces commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi also hailed his troops on the anniversary of the invasion.

“The world did not believe that we would survive, but the Ukrainian people withstood the enemy’s attacks with dignity,” he wrote on Telegram.

One person has died and several are wounded following a knife attack at a town market in eastern France, in what French authorities have described as an act of terror.

“Horror has just gripped our city. A man attacked passers-by at the covered canal market with a knife, several municipal police officers who intervened to neutralize him were also injured,” Mulhouse town mayor Michèle Lutz said in a statement Saturday on Facebook.

The suspect has been arrested and is currently in police custody, according to a press release by the office of France’s national anti-terror prosecutor.

The attacker had targeted several municipal police officers, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” as well as a passerby, the prosecutor’s office said. A civilian has died, and three officers are injured.

French President Emmanuel Macron expressed condolences to the victim’s family, adding that France’s national anti-terror prosecutor is looking into the case.

Macron also described the attack as “no doubt, an Islamic terrorist act, given the terrorist’s words.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for more than a week, remains in “critical” condition and developed an “asthmatic respiratory crisis” earlier on Saturday, the Vatican said in a statement.

“This morning Pope Francis presented with an asthmatic respiratory crisis of prolonged magnitude, which also required the application of oxygen at high flows,” the Vatican wrote about the ailing pontiff who is being treated for pneumonia.

While Francis “continues to be alert and spent the day in an armchair” he is “in more pain than yesterday,” it added.

He also received blood transfusions today to treat anemia, according to the statement.

Earlier on Saturday, the Vatican said he would remain in hospitalized following his pneumonia diagnosis and will not deliver the weekly Angelus prayer – for only the third time in his almost 12-year-long papacy.

The pope’s condition had seemed more promising earlier in the week, with the Vatican describing him as responding “positively” to medical treatment for pneumonia on Thursday.

“Is the pope out of danger? No. Both doors are open. Is he at risk of immediate death? No. The therapy needs time to work,” said Sergio Alfieri, a surgeon who has previously operated on the pope, to reporters on Friday.

The pontiff was admitted to clinic in the Italian capital on February 14, and initially underwent tests for a respiratory tract infection. He was subsequently diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs after a later CT scan.

Francis, who is from Argentina, has a vulnerability to respiratory infections. As a young man, he suffered a severe bout of pneumonia that led to the removal of part of one lung.

In 2021, doctors also surgically removed part of his colon in relation to diverticulitis, which can cause inflammation or infection of the colon. He was hospitalized with bronchitis in 2023, and in recent months has had two falls where he bruised his chin and hurt his arm which was put into a sling.

‘An extraordinary man’

This is the third-longest time Francis has spent in hospital since his election as pope.

His doctors have advised “complete rest” for the pope. Even so, he has continued to do some work, including on the first two days of hospitalization holding his daily phone call to Rev. Gabriel Romanelli and his assistant, Father Yusuf Asad, in Gaza City, northern Gaza. They have been in frequent contact since Israel launched its bombing campaign and siege on the enclave, following the October 7 Hamas-led attacks.

“We joked as always. He hasn’t lost his proverbial sense of humor,” the prime minister said in a statement.

Outside the capital, worshipers have gathered in candle-lit churches – from Argentina to the Vatican – to pray for Francis’ steady recovery.

“We always put him in our intentions,” Rodomina Valdez, a 45-year-old Argentinian in the Metropolitan Cathedral, in the capital Buenos Aires, told Reuters on Wednesday. “But what we can do is put him in our prayers and offer fasting or in any case, some penance.”

Just outside St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican, a German tourist, Klaus, said he hoped the pope “will have many strong years left in him.” And back at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, letters and drawings made by children in the oncology department showed colorful illustrations and messages wishing him well.

“I hope he gets well soon and that he can get back to his role,” Gaetano Bavagnini, a Rome resident, said. “He is an extraordinary man and an extraordinary pope.”

President Donald Trump spent the first month of his second term on an extraordinary mission — dismantling the global system the United States spent the past 80 years building.

It was always theoretically possible that the West could lose its resonance as World War II and the Cold War became increasingly distant memories. But no one expected to see a US president wielding the ax.

When Trump won last year’s election, there was a sense among some western diplomats in Washington that their governments knew how to handle a president who in his first term often made foreign policy by tweet. But the shock that drove European leaders to an emergency meeting in Paris this week suggests they underestimated just how destructive Trump’s second term would be.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meanwhile told Europeans that they now need to “take ownership of conventional security on the continent” casting immediate doubt on security alliance NATO’s foundational creed of mutual self-defense.

America’s repudiation of its traditional foreign policy is being driven by both Trump’s particular obsessions and wider geopolitical changes. The United States remains the world’s strongest power — but it no longer has the might that can force others — like China — to live by its rules. Indeed, it now has a president who has no intention of observing any economic, trade, and diplomatic rules at all and is threatening to annex Canada.

Not only that, but the new administration is actively seeking to destabilize friendly democracies and fuel a global movement of rightwing populism. Vance’s speech warned that European governments threatened their own security more than China or Russia because of their policies on free speech and immigration. He also met the leader of the AfD, a far-right party in Germany with neo-Nazi roots and sought to boost far-right parties elsewhere who are challenging governments in France and Britain for example. Trump would rather deal with fellow travelers in a Make Europe Great Again (MEGA) movement than centrist leaders now in office.

So, what can Europe do now that America — the country that rebuilt the continent from the ashes of World War II — seems to be becoming an openly hostile power?

French President Emmanuel Macron, acting on the experience of his dealings with Trump during their first terms, has been warning for years that Europe needed to realize that America had become an unreliable partner. With doubts about the US military commitment to its allies, other members of NATO now have no choice but to hike shriveled military spending.

This will be painful since many of Europe’s governments are already struggling to balance the books and are under extreme pressure to maintain their popular welfare states. And getting all members of the European Union to agree on a more independent path will be treacherous. Some nations in Moscow’s old neighborhood – like Poland and the Baltic states – understand the Russian threat all too well, but some smaller, Western European countries perceive the danger to be more distant. And the EU now includes some leaders who’d love to help Trump do Putin’s work for him in dividing the western alliance — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for instance.

In only 31 days in office, Trump has already changed the world.

What to watch for next week

Barring a big surprise, the big international story will be Ukraine.

We may learn more about the prospects of a peace deal to end the war and how it would be implemented when Macron visits the White House on Monday and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer follows him on Thursday.

The visits will be critical to showing whether there is any scope for US-European cooperation on the war — after the continent was shut out of US talks in Saudi Arabia with Russia this week. Both Britain and France say they’re ready to send troops to Ukraine to monitor any eventual peace — but it’s hard to fathom that such an operation could take place without US air, intelligence, and logistical support. Is Trump prepared to do this and risk angering Moscow, which has already ruled out the idea of foreign troops in Ukraine?

Look out also next week to see if either leader shows up in the Oval Office with an offer to raise their own defense spending — to impress their host.

Macron plans to use his visit to try to insert some steel in Trump’s spine following his latest round of genuflecting to Putin and will appeal to the US President’s highly advanced sense of his own power. “I’m going to say to Trump, ‘Deep down you can’t be weak in the face of Putin, it’s not you, it’s not your trademark’,” Macron said Thursday.

The UK isn’t in the European Union anymore, but it’s been in lockstep with Macron and other leaders from the bloc this week. Starmer is seeking to restore the UK’s former role its traditional role as a bridge between its great friend the United States and Europe.

There’s just one problem. Trump doesn’t cross bridges. He burns them.

Editor’s Note: This article contains details that readers may find distressing.

Five years ago, a 13-year-old girl, the daughter of poor wage laborers from one of India’s most marginalized communities, was allegedly sexually abused by one of her neighbors in the village where she lived.

Her alleged abuser filmed it and police are investigating whether he used the images to blackmail and manipulate the girl into being raped and sexually abused by dozens of other men and boys over the next five years.

Police say the allegations only came to light after the girl, now 18, spoke to a counselor visiting her college in Kerala state and detailed the years of horrific abuse.

Charges have not yet been filed and the 58 men remain in detention. None of the accused has spoken publicly about the allegations. Under Indian rape laws, the girl has not been identified.

Violence against women is rampant in India due to entrenched sexism and patriarchy, despite laws being amended to include more severe punishments for abusers.

In August the rape and murder of a trainee medic in the eastern city of Kolkata sparked a nationwide doctors’ strike that brought tens of thousands into the streets to demand change.

The Kerala case has not sparked similar outrage.

Experts and activists say that’s because the victim is from the Dalit community at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, a 3,000-year-old social and religious hierarchy that categorizes people at birth and defines their place in society.

Dalits traditionally carry out occupations viewed as ritually “unclean” by Hindu scripture, such as manual scavenging, waste picking and street sweeping.

They are often banned from visiting temples and forced to live apart from higher-caste communities, often in squalor and farther from access to services.

Despite legislation banning discrimination based on caste, activists say the stigma leaves India’s more than 260 million Dalits vulnerable to abuse and less able to seek redress for crimes committed against them.

“When it’s Dalit women, in general the outrage is less across the country,” said Cynthia Stephen, a Dalit rights activist and social policy researcher.

There is a sense that “this girl is not ‘one of us,’” she said.

Manipulated, kidnapped and abused

At least three of her abusers promised to marry her, according to police. One threatened to kill her if she reported the abuse.

Some of the men acted alone, police said. But others are accused of gang rape. “It’s not that all the cases are connected. But in one case, there might be four or five accused,” said Begum, from Kerala Police.

Many of the men contacted the young girl on her father’s phone, through social media apps such as Instagram and WhatsApp, late at night after he went to sleep, police said.

The alleged abuse took place in private and public spaces, in homes and in cars, at bus stops and in fields. Some of the cases allegedly involved men who were strangers, living in towns dozens of miles away.

Some of the cases involve allegations of human trafficking, because the men forced the girl to travel outside her village, police said.

The allegations have sent shock waves through the girl’s village in the green hills of Kerala, where many work as wage laborers in low-paid jobs like construction and farming.

Police say the girl’s parents worked long hours and did not know about the alleged abuse of their daughter.

When the allegations emerged in January, some women in the community were sympathetic toward the accused and angry at the survivor, according to local media outlet The News Minute.

The women criticized the girl’s clothing and lifestyle and blamed her mother for not watching over her more closely, The News Minute reported.

One mother, whose son was among the accused, said he was innocent. She said he had known the girl since she was a baby and “had raised the girl in his arms,” according to the outlet.

‘Monsters in her own backyard’

More than half of Dalits in Kerala live in designated areas called “colonies,” known for cramped and harsh living conditions, after years of being denied land ownership under historical laws.

Madhumita Pandey, a professor in criminology and gender justice at Sheffield Hallam University in the United Kingdom, said the tight-knit nature of communities such as these colonies could explain why the alleged abuse of the teenage girl was not reported until recently.

“They could sometimes be your friend, uncle or neighbor,” she said.

It can be harder to report abuse when “the so-called monsters are in our own backyard,” she said.

Official statistics support her point: the alleged perpetrator is known to the victim in more than 98% of reported rape cases in Kerala, according to government data.

There were 4,241 reported cases of rape against women from oppressed castes in India, including Dalit women, in 2022, the most recent year for which data exists, according to India’s National Crime Records Bureau. That’s equivalent to more than 10 rapes per day.

There were more than 31,500 rapes reported overall in 2022, according to the NCRB.

However, given the difficulties in reporting such crimes, especially for the Dalit community, the true figure is likely higher.

Furthermore, in close communities, and especially in Dalit communities, women and girls also risk isolating themselves or being seen as bringing dishonor upon their families if they report abuse, Pandey said.

In at least 16 of the cases from the alleged Kerala village abuse, the accused men are from more privileged castes, according to police. If found guilty, these men could face harsher punishments under Indian laws designed to protect disadvantaged castes.

A 2020 report by the NGO Equality Now found that sexual violence is used by dominant castes to oppress Dalit women and girls, who are often denied justice because of a “prevalent culture of impunity, particularly when the perpetrators are from a dominant caste.”

Even when Dalit women report sexual abuse, they face an uphill battle to justice.

The Equality Now report followed 40 cases of rape against Dalit women and girls, and the seven cases that resulted in convictions involved either rape and murder together or were committed against girls under the age of 6.

N Rajeev, the head of the Child Welfare Committee in Pathanamthitta, the Kerala district where the girl is from, said an increase in reported child sexual abuse cases was in part thanks to campaigns in schools that help children identify and disclose abuse. The number of reported child sexual abuse cases in the state has surged to 4,663 in 2023, more than four times the 1,002 reported in 2013, according to government data.

The Dalit girl is now living in a shelter where she is receiving counseling and support, Begum, the police officer, said. The girl’s mother is also being given counseling and has the option to stay in a women’s shelter if she feels unsafe in the neighborhood. Begum said police have dedicated “maximum manpower” to the case.

The case will likely take years to go through the courts.

Across India, rape has one of the lowest conviction rates of major crimes, with 27% of cases resulting in convictions in 2022, according to the NCRB.

While child sexual abuse continues to be a “a grim reality” in Kerala, the fact that the Dalit girl was able to report the case is a step in the right direction, Stephen said.

“Otherwise, this would have just gone on unreported for years on end, then she would have nobody to help her.”

A rocket-propelled grenade believed to be more than 25 years old killed two cousins, a girl and a boy both 2 years old, when it blew up Saturday near their homes in rural northwestern Cambodia, officials said.

The accident happened in Siem Reap province’s Svay Leu district, where there had been heavy fighting in the 1980s and 1990s between Cambodian government soldiers and rebel guerrillas from the communist Khmer Rouge. The group had been ousted from power in 1979.

Muo Lisa and her male cousin, Thum Yen, lived in neighboring homes in the remote village of Kranhuong. Their parents were doing farm work when the two toddlers apparently came across the unexploded ordnance and it detonated. Experts from the Cambodian Mine Action Center determined afterwards from fragments that it was a rocket-propelled grenade.

Old unexploded munitions are especially dangerous because their explosive contents become volatile as they deteriorate.

“Their parents went to settle on land that was a former battlefield, and they were not aware that there were any land mines or unexploded ordnance buried near their homes,” CMAC Director-General Heng Ratana said. “It’s a pity because they were too young and they should not have died like this.”

Some 4 million-6 million land mines and other unexploded munitions are estimated to have littered Cambodia’s countryside during decades of conflict that began in 1970 and ended in 1998.

Since the end of the fighting in Cambodia, nearly 20,000 people have been killed and about 45,000 injured by leftover war explosives. The number of casualties has declined over time; last year there were 49 deaths.

“The war is completely over and there is fully peace for more than 25 years, but the blood of the Khmer (Cambodian) people continues to flow because of the remnants of land mines and ammunition,” Heng Ratana said on his Facebook page.

Cambodian deminers are among the world’s most experienced, and several thousand have been sent in the past decade under U.N. auspices to work in Africa and the Middle East.

Cambodia’s demining efforts drew attention earlier this month, when U.S. financial assistance for it in eight provinces was suspended due to President Donald Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign assistance. Heng Ratana said Thursday he had been informed that Washington had issued a waiver allowing the aid — $6.36 million covering March 2022 to November 2025 — to resume flowing.