The French president met with Trump to discuss European security guarantees and the war in Ukraine as several other Western leaders convened in Kyiv in a show of strength and unity against Russia.
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Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson (D.) is grappling with historic levels of voter disapproval over his handling of the city’s migrant influx and his pushback against President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
An overwhelming 79.9 percent of Chicago residents disapprove of Johnson’s leadership, while only 6.6 percent view the Democrat favorably, according to a poll that M3 Strategies released on Saturday. The mayor’s favorability rating is even lower than in October of last year, when Johnson became the most unpopular mayor in Chicago history.
Around 67 percent of voters, meanwhile, identify crime as Chicago’s most pressing issue, with respondents also citing high taxes and inflation as top concerns at 54 percent and 41 percent, respectively. “LGBTQ+ rights,” at 3 percent, and “reproductive freedom,” at 4 percent, are voters’ lowest concerns, the poll found.
Johnson, who was elected mayor in 2023, is electorally underwater in the poll, with only 8.2 percent support. His primary rivals, Illinois secretary of state Alexi Giannoulias and former Chicago schools chief Paul Vallas, are leading with 27.4 percent and 21 percent, respectively. Giannoulias boasts a 49 percent favorability rating, while Vallas has 41 percent, according to the poll.
Johnson has long faced backlash over his handling of Chicago’s migrant crisis, with residents decrying his proposed tax hike to cover a budget deficit as the city spends over half a billion dollars on migrant shelters. The mayor, though, has criticized the Trump administration’s response to the crisis, saying that arresting and deporting illegal immigrants is “attempting to get us to surrender our humanity.”
The Department of Justice sued Chicago and Illinois earlier this month, arguing that the city’s and state’s sanctuary laws “interfere” with the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Illinois and Chicago “refuse to cooperate with detainers,” a DOJ official told the New York Post. “Instead of handing over people who are in prison or in jail to federal immigration authorities they will just let folks go.”
Chicago’s Welcoming City ordinance prohibits any city agency or official from arresting or detaining “a person solely on the belief that the person is not present legally in the United States.”
The post Blowback in the Windy City: 4 in 5 Chicagoans Disapprove of Dem Mayor, Poll Finds appeared first on .
(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump is meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday amid uncertainty regarding the future of longstanding alliances between the United States and European countries.
Trump campaigned on quickly ending the war in Ukraine and has shifted the foreign policy landscape by speaking directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin in defiance of international efforts to freeze Putin out.
Trump is conducting the negotiations without input from European leadership or Ukrainian officials and set up a meeting with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia. He has also repeatedly attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, calling the elected leader a dictator.
Trump has falsely said Ukraine started the war, when it was Russia that invaded the country in February of 2022.
Trump has made unprecedented demands on other European countries, including a desire to take over Greenland, which is currently under the control of Denmark, and demanding half of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for American support in the war and as back pay for previous assistance.
He has also made demands in other areas of the world, suggesting the U.S. take over Canada, Gaza and the Panama Canal.
There are fears those desires could shift the geopolitical landscape and bring an end to the country’s role as a leading force for global stability and as an economic and moral leader.
“The only conclusion you can draw is that 80 years of policy in standing up against aggressors has just been blown up without any sort of discussion or reflection,” said Ian Kelly, a U.S. ambassador to Georgia during the Obama and first Trump administrations and now a professor at Northwestern University.
Macron is expected to tell Trump that the U.S. and Europe should not show weakness to Russia and that how the negotiations are handled could impact future U.S. relations with China.
However, Trump has long shown a level of respect and support for Putin that separates him from other Western leaders. He has often repeated Russian talking points in his campaign rallies and statements as president.
That has led to fears the European-U.S. alliance could be in jeopardy and sparked concerns of cracks in NATO with global consequences. European leaders meeting with Trump hope to shore up traditional ties and persuade Trump to include them in negotiations regarding Ukraine.
Another topic likely to be addressed is Trump’s plan for “reciprocal tariffs” on goods, which his administration is expected to determine on a country-by-country basis.
On Thursday, Trump is set to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
(NewsNation) — With migrant encounters continuing to trend downward at the border and President Donald Trump pressuring Mexico to crack down on illegal immigration, the southern border isn’t seeing thousands of migrants arriving like it did just a year ago.
But that doesn’t mean the crisis is over.
There are still thousands of migrants in Mexico stuck in limbo after Trump ended the CBP One Program. Now, smugglers in Mexico are capitalizing on the desperation of migrants and charging up to $18,000 to be smuggled across the Rio Grande.
NewsNation rode along with Texas Department of Public Safety state troopers in the Rio Grande Valley, an area seeing an uptick in smuggling with migrants now trying to enter the U.S. undetected while smugglers look to make a sizeable profit.
Within NewsNation’s first hour with state Trooper Guadalupe Casarez, he received an alert from a camera showing individuals entering the U.S. illegally and attempting to hide in the brush.
Border Patrol agents and Texas Army National Guard troops also arrived on the scene. NewsNation followed Casarez as he and Border Patrol agents cleared the brush and tracked the individuals’ footsteps, eventually leading him to two Mexican nationals lying on the ground, attempting to hide from authorities.
The men were handcuffed and said they planned to head to San Antonio. Instead, they could now face charges for smuggling. Border Patrol checked the two migrants closely, looking for tattoos or other signs that could link them to a gang or criminal group.
Smugglers in Mexico are now moving in smaller groups, looking for areas not patrolled by state troopers, the National Guard or Border Patrol, who work together to deter smugglers.
In the Rio Grande Valley, state troopers and Border Patrol are also working to stop drugs from entering the U.S.
Last week, the two agencies intercepted 187 pounds of narcotics and arrested three Mexican nationals in Cameron County. The three men now face prosecution.
Texas Army National Guard troops have arrested and processed migrants who attempted to enter near Roma, Texas, a location that has become a hot spot for migrant and drug smuggling in recent weeks.
The goal for authorities at the border is to stay one step ahead of smugglers in Mexico, who are now seeking to capitalize on the desperation of migrants still in Mexico looking for a way to enter the U.S.
On Easter Sunday in 2022, a missile strike shattered a quiet town in Ukraine, Donetsk region. In the aftermath, Oksana, 40, was left clinging to life, her husband and young son killed in an instant. The following January, in Dnipro, a 23-year-old named Anastasia lost her parents in a missile attack on their apartment building. She had already lost her fiancé to the war. By September 2024, another family was obliterated, this time in Lviv: Yaroslav’s wife and three daughters were killed in their home by yet another Russian missile.
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These tragedies are not aberrations. They are the brutal, everyday reality of a nation under siege. Behind the names and dates lie lives undone, futures erased.
Three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, justice is now the rallying cry of millions of Ukrainians. It is about accountability, ensuring that those who orchestrated this invasion are held responsible, and deterring others who might dare to follow Vladimir Putin’s example. It is also urgent as President Donald Trump vows to end the war and begins negotiations with Russia.
But justice is far from straightforward. The war in Ukraine has exposed profound fault lines in the international legal order, challenging its capacity to deliver on its most basic goal.
As world leaders and legal scholars debate how to respond, two primary paths have emerged. The first envisions a tribunal focused specifically on the crime of aggression—the deliberate decision to launch an unjust war. The second proposes a hybrid mechanism, one that would address the full spectrum of international crimes stemming from the Russian invasion, from war crimes to crimes against humanity.
The foundations have been laid to establish a special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, the E.U. said earlier this month. But this approach contains a significant gap. While well-intentioned, this approach risks framing justice as a European issue rather than a universal imperative.
Read More: Inside Ukraine’s Push to Try Putin for War Crimes
Russia has already seized on this detail. At the BRICS summit in October, Moscow portrayed global justice efforts as a Western plot, pitting the so-called Global South against the West. A regional tribunal might inadvertently play into this narrative, further polarizing the world.
For justice to carry the weight it must, it cannot be regional. It must be global. That means forging a coalition broad enough to lend legitimacy to the endeavor—one that includes nations from every corner of the world.
Modern international law emerged from the wreckage of world wars. After World War I, early attempts at accountability—like the Leipzig Trials—offered valuable lessons, albeit limited by weak legal frameworks. World War II brought the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, which were groundbreaking in their scope and symbolic power. Nevertheless, these efforts were fundamentally tied to the dynamics of victory: the Allies judged the Axis.
Ukraine’s situation is different. If the war ends in agreements or a frozen conflict, neither side will feel like a true winner or loser. Instead, it may culminate in an uneasy settlement, leaving justice adrift in uncharted waters. Compounding the challenge is Russia’s nuclear brinkmanship, which casts a long shadow over international decision-making.
Ukraine’s allies face a critical question: Will they prioritize justice, even if it complicates peace? Or will they ask Ukraine to set aside its quest for accountability in exchange for a fragile ceasefire? These concerns are especially pressing in the context of Ukraine’s exclusion from what is increasingly being framed as the negotiating process.
Read More: Ukraine Needs a Ceasefire Now
The U.S. has an ambivalent relationship with international criminal justice. At times, it has actively opposed the International Criminal Court, even resorting to sanctions—a move that directly undermines the fundamental principle of justice: holding perpetrators of international crimes accountable. Such actions create opportunities for Russia and other states to further discredit international law and weaken the global security system.
Now, the U.S. must decide whether it will lead or lag. A global tribunal for Ukraine offers America an opportunity to reaffirm its commitment to the rule of law and to counter Russia’s narrative of Western hypocrisy. However, doing so requires clarity of purpose and a willingness to embrace the messy, often frustrating, process of building international consensus.
This is not just Ukraine’s fight. It’s a litmus test for the entire international system. Can it adapt to address the realities of a multipolar world where aggressors are not easily subdued? Can it balance the demands of peace with the imperative of accountability?
Justice, in this context, is not merely an abstract ideal. It’s the bedrock of any durable peace. Without it, the scars of this war—on Ukraine, on Europe, on the international order—will fester.
For justice to succeed, it must transcend borders. It must reflect a shared commitment to a world where sovereignty is sacrosanct, where power is constrained by law, and where no nation is too mighty to be held accountable. And it must acknowledge that justice is not something that can be bargained with.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Ukraine’s call for justice is also a call to the world: to choose the rule of law over the rule of force, to build systems that protect the weak against the strong, and to ensure that, even in the darkest times, accountability prevails.
This is a moment of reckoning—not just for Ukraine but for all of us.
The MTA has announced that congestion pricing has brought in $48.6 million during its first month of operation.
The data comes after President Donald Trump announced his intention to kill the program by withdrawing federal support on Feb. 19, just six weeks after the tolls started.
Congestion pricing began on Jan. 5. It charges motorists a base peak toll of $9 when they enter the Congestion Relief Zone south of and including 60th Street in Manhattan.
According to Bloomberg, the revenue, which covers tolls collected through Jan. 31, is in line with budget projections. The MTA has said it expects to raise around $500 million from congestion pricing per year.
The program has shown signs of working to alleviate congestion, with a 7.5% reduction in traffic by its third week in effect.
Both the state and the MTA have taken the Trump administration to court to stop the maneuver; in the meantime, congestion pricing remains active, and tolls continue to be collected.
Over the weekend, Gov. Kathy Hochul reported on her meeting with Trump on Friday in Washington, DC. She told Face the Nation Sunday that she stressed the importance of the toll program on not just Manhattan residents but also the city’s public transit system.
Billions of dollars in planned transit improvements, to be funded with congestion pricing revenue, are at stake.
“I wanted to take my case to him directly and let him see the benefits of this program because our city is paralyzed with gridlock,” Hochul said on air. “And we had a path forward to be able to make the city move again, and it’s working. I wanted to just have that opportunity to convey that, but I don’t know that we’re very persuasive on that front, but that’s okay. The people in my state need to know I’m willing to take the fight wherever I have to.”
