World
In White House visit, Polish president pushes NATO to ramp up spending, calls on US to fund Ukraine
WASHINGTON (AP) — Polish President Andrzej Duda used a joint White House visit with his political rival, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, on Tuesday to call on NATO allies to significantly increase defense spending and press a divided Washington to break its impasse over replenishing funds for Ukraine at a critical moment in the war in Europe.
Duda wants members of the NATO alliance to raise their spending on defense to 3% of their GDP as Russia puts its own economy on a war footing and pushes forward with its plans to conquer Ukraine. Poland already spends 4% of its own economic output on defense, double the current target of 2% for NATO nations.
POLISH PRESIDENT PUSHES NATO ALLIES TOWARD HIGHER DEFENSE SPENDING
The Polish leader made the call as he and Tusk visited Washington to mark their country’s 25th anniversary of joining the now 32-member transatlantic military alliance. It was a historic step into the West after breaking free from Moscow’s sphere of influence after decades of communist rule.
President Joe Biden meets with Polish President Andrzej Duda and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Washington.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine really demonstrated that United States is and should remain the security leader,” Duda said. “But other allies must take more responsibility for the security of the alliance as a whole. Two percent was good 10 years ago. Now 3% is required in response for the full scale war launched by Russia right beyond NATO’s eastern border.”
Biden called the U.S. commitment to Poland ironclad and marveled at Poland’s current defense spending and thanked the leaders for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees after Russia launched the February 2022 invasion. But he did not directly address Duda’s call for NATO members to ramp up spending.
“When we stand together, no force on earth is more powerful,” Biden said, recalling the words of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright upon Poland’s accession into the alliance. “I believed that then and I believe that now. And we see it with Polish and American troops serving side by side with NATO on the eastern flank, including in Poland.”
Biden administration officials, however, suggested ahead of the meeting that Duda’s call to raise the defense spending target for NATO countries may be, at least for the time being, overly ambitious.
“I think the first step is to get every country meeting the 2% threshold, and we’ve seen improvement of that,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “But I think that’s the first step before we start talking about an additional proposal.”
The visit also comes amid a standoff in Washington between Biden, a Democrat, and House Republicans on Ukraine funding. House Republicans have blocked a $118 billion bipartisan package that includes $60 billion in Ukraine funding, as well as funds for Israel, Taiwan and U.S. border security.
The Pentagon announced Tuesday it will rush about $300 million in weapons to Ukraine after finding some cost savings in its contracts. It’s the Biden administration’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds.
Biden said the funding is not nearly enough, and pointed to Poland’s own history to argue for further further funding.
“We must act before it literally is too late.” Biden said. “Because as Poland remembers, Russia won’t stop at Ukraine. Putin will keep going, putting Europe, the United States and the entire free world at risk.”
Duda met with U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday before the White House meeting. and offered a blunt warning: If the U.S. does not deliver military aid to halt Russia’s advance, Poland will be on the frontlines of a conflict that involves European and American troops.
“Financial support for Ukraine is cheap if you take into account what other forms of support would be needed if it comes to war and to an attack on NATO countries,” Duda said.
Tusk after the White House meeting called on Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to pass Ukraine funding, warning him that inaction could “cost thousands of human lives in Ukraine.”
“This is not some political skirmish that has significance only here, on the American political stage,” Tusk said.
Biden informed the leaders that the U.S. plans to move forward with a foreign military financing loan that will help Poland purchase 96 Apache helicopters. The State Department approved the sale last year.
The visit offered Biden another opportunity to showcase how his view of NATO contrasts with that of the likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.
Trump has said that when he was president, he warned NATO allies that he “would encourage” Russia “to do whatever the hell they want” to countries that are “delinquent” in meeting the alliance’s defense spending target. White House press secretary
Fear is deepening across Europe about Ukraine’s fate as its ammunition stocks run low and as Russia makes gains on the battlefield in Ukraine, reversing its weak military performance at the start of a war launched in February 2022.
Tusk said that despite political divisions in Poland the country is unified on the issues of security, Russia and Ukraine and wishes the same were true for other allies.
“When we Poles started on our road to the West, Pope John Paul II said there could be no just Europe without an independent Poland,” Tusk said “And today, I would say there can be no safe Europe without a strong Poland. And of course I would also say there could be no just Europe without a free and independent Ukraine.”
It is the first time in a quarter-century for a Polish president and prime minister to be in Washington at the same time and the first for both leaders to be welcomed at the White House at the same time, according to Polish media. The gesture by the bitter political rivals is widely seen as an acknowledgment of the seriousness of this historical moment, with Russian strength growing as that of Ukraine wanes.
Duda, aligned with a national conservative party that lost power last year, used his power to delay the transition to a new government under Tusk by weeks.
Tusk won power after promising to restore democratic norms that eroded under the last government and Poland has been hailed by many across Europe as one of the only places where growing authoritarianism has been reversed in recent times.
“No matter matter who wins the election in our country we treat our obligation seriously, more than anyone else in Europe,” Tusk said.
Shops and schools shut in northern Israel as residents protested a 10-day ceasefire with Lebanon that took effect on April 16, saying “nothing was achieved”. Israeli officials say operations may continue, with forces still deployed inside southern Lebanon.
Published On 19 Apr 2026
World
Pope Leo says remarks about world being ‘ravaged by a handful of tyrants’ were not aimed at Trump: report
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Pope Leo XIV said Saturday that remarks he made this week in which he said the “world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants” were not directed at President Donald Trump, a report said.
The pope, speaking onboard a flight to Angola during his 10-day tour of Africa, said reporting about his comments “has not been accurate in all its aspects” and his speech “was prepared two weeks ago, well before the president ever commented on myself and on the message of peace that I am promoting,” according to Reuters.
The news outlet cited the pope as saying his comments were not aimed at Trump.
“As it happens, it was looked at as if I was trying to debate the president, which is not in my interest at all,” the pope reportedly said.
’60 MINUTES’ ACCUSED OF USING LEFT-LEANING CARDINALS TO BAIT TRUMP INTO FEUD WITH VATICAN
Pope Leo XIV answers journalists’ questions during his flight from Yaoundé, Cameroon, to Luanda, Angola, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (Luca Zennaro/Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance later took to X to thank the pope for clearing the record.
“While the media narrative constantly gins up conflict — and yes, real disagreements have happened and will happen — the reality is often much more complicated,” Vance wrote. “Pope Leo preaches the gospel, as he should, and that will inevitably mean he offers his opinions on the moral issues of the day.
“The President — and the entire administration — work to apply those moral principles in a messy world,” he continued. “He will be in our prayers, and I hope that we’ll be in his.”
The vice president’s comments came days after he told Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” that it would be best for the Vatican to “stick to matters of morality.”
“Let the President of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said Tuesday.
Trump last Sunday accused Pope Leo XIV of being “terrible” on foreign policy after the pontiff criticized the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
“He talks about ‘fear’ of the Trump Administration, but doesn’t mention the FEAR that the Catholic Church, and all other Christian Organizations, had during COVID when they were arresting priests, ministers, and everybody else, for holding Church Services, even when going outside, and being ten and even twenty feet apart,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
“I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
POPE LEO SLAMS THOSE WHO ‘MANIPULATE RELIGION’ FOR MILITARY OR POLITICAL GAIN, TRUMP RESPONDS
Pope Leo XIV and President Donald Trump (Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images; Salwan Georges/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
During a speech in Cameroon on Thursday, the pope said, “We must make a decisive change of course — a true conversion — that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity.
“The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters.
Pope Leo XIV speaks as he meets with the community of Bamenda at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral in Bamenda on the fourth day of an 11-day apostolic journey to Africa April 16, 2026. (Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Bulgarians headed to the polls Sunday for the eighth time in five years, with anti-corruption candidate and former president Rumen Radev’s bloc tipped to win.
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The European Union’s poorest member has been through a spate of governments since 2021, when large anti-graft rallies brought an end to the conservative government of long-time leader Boyko Borissov.
Eurostat data shows Bulgaria consistently ranks last in the EU by GDP per capita. In 2025, Bulgaria (along with Greece) was at 68% of the EU average.
Radev, who has advocated for renewing ties with Russia and opposes military aid to Ukraine, was president for nine years in the Balkan nation of 6.5 million people.
He stepped down in January to lead newly formed centre-left grouping Progressive Bulgaria, with opinion polls before Sunday’s vote suggesting the bloc could gain 35% of the vote.
The former air force general has said he wants to rid the country of its “oligarchic governance model”, and backed anti-corruption protests in late 2025 that brought down the latest conservative-backed government.
“I’m voting for change,” Decho Kostadinov, 57, told reporters after casting his ballot at a polling station in the capital, Sofia, adding corrupt politicians “should leave — they should take whatever they’ve stolen and get out of Bulgaria”.
Polls are forecasting a surge in voter participation, with more than 3.3 million Bulgarians expected to cast ballots according to the Bulgarian News Agency.
Voting will close at 1700 GMT, with exit polls expected immediately afterwards. Preliminary results are expected on Monday.
‘Preserve what we have’
Borissov’s pro-European GERB party is likely to come second, according to opinion polls, with around 20%, ahead of the liberal PP-DB.
“I’m voting to preserve what we have. We are a democratic country, we live well,” said Elena, an accountant of about 60, who did not give her full name, after casting her vote in Sofia.
Front-runner Radev has slammed the EU’s green energy policy, which he considers naive “in a world without rules”.
He also opposes any Bulgarian efforts to send arms to help Ukraine fight back Russia’s 2022 invasion, though he has said he would not use his country’s veto to block Brussels’ decisions.
Pushing for renewed ties with Russia, Radev denounced a 10-year defence agreement between Bulgaria and Ukraine signed last month – drawing fresh accusations from opponents of being too soft on Moscow.
The ex-president also stoked outrage online for screening images at his final campaign rally of his meetings with world leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“We need to close ranks,” he told around 10,000 cheering supporters at the rally, presenting his party as a non-corrupt “alternative to the perverse cartel of old-style parties”.
Borissov, who headed the country virtually uninterrupted for close to a decade, has dismissed suggestions that Radev brings something “new”.
At a rally of his party earlier this week, he insisted GERB had “fulfilled the dreams of the 1990s” with such achievements as the country joining the eurozone this year.
‘No one to vote for’
Radev is aiming for an absolute majority in the 240-seat parliament.
A lack of trust in politics has affected voter turnout, which slumped to 39% in the last election in 2024.
But with Radev rallying voters, high turnout is expected this time, according to analyst Boryana Dimitrova from the Alpha Research polling institute.
Miglena Boyadjieva, a taxi driver of about 55, said she always votes, but the “problem is that there is no one to vote for”.
“You vote for one person and get others. The system has to change,” she told reporters.
Political parties have called on Bulgarians to show up for the polls, also to curb the impact of vote buying.
In recent weeks, police have seized more than one million euros in raids against vote buying in stepped-up operations.
They have also detained hundreds of people, including local councillors and mayors.
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