Hegseth attacks Europe over migration in D-Day speech
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Suurenmoista. Suurenmoiseen elämään.
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross and in the early hours of Sunday the 7th of June, these are our main stories. At an event commemorating the D-Day landings in Normandy, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth criticises Europe for not doing enough to stop the arrival of migrants on its shores. Iran accuses the US of discrimination after several members of its World Cup delegation are denied visas. And Peruvians prepare to elect our ninth president in ten years. Also in this podcast, more evacuations in South Africa following a wave of attacks on migrants. A teenager is crowned the women's French Open tennis champion and... I brought my skills definitely to the crushers.
We found that using the humble potato masher turned out to be an excellent way of crushing grapes. Could Irish wine give the French and Italians a run for their money? The European migration policy has once again become a target of criticism from the Trump administration, showing a clear divide in attitudes on either side of the Atlantic. This time that message came from the US Defence Secretary, Pete Hegseth, who has criticised European nations for allowing what he described as an invasion of migrants on their shores. He was speaking in Normandy in France 82 years after Allied forces stormed French beaches to liberate Nazi-occupied northwestern Europe in 1944. Hegseth said in the years since D-Day, some European capitals had grown too comfortable with their hard-fought freedoms.
Sadly, today, different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies. Beaches in Spain, in Italy, in Greece... Boats and men arrive. When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not. On Friday, the US Vice President, J.D. Vance, blamed the murder of a British student by a British Sikh man on what he called the mass invasion of migrants. Downing Street responded by criticising those it says are seeking to stir up division on our streets. Tobias Elwood is a former British government minister. Excessive remarks would be discourteous, irresponsible, coming at any time from any, indeed any American, let alone a senior representative of
But the fact that it's happened on the anniversary of the D-Day landings is particularly telling. And many veterans and families will rightly see this as misguided, indeed insulting. Our correspondent in Washington, Tom Simons, told me more about what Pete Hexeth had been saying. He suggested that European countries were not doing enough to defend Western values. He said that the men who stormed ashore on D-Day knew that liberating Europe, these are his words, took industry and courage, not empty slogans, lavish summits and not communiques. And that seemed to be a reference to the US administration's feeling that some European countries... are too relaxed and insufficiently prepared to invest in fighting wars.
But he also made these comments about migration. He said that Mediterranean beaches were being stormed by people, and those were the words he used, with different dangerous ideologies. And he asked, when will European capitals do something about that, quote, invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not, he said. But he was clearly very critical of that situation. Any sense why Washington is weighing in on this issue now? Well, there's a clear and obvious difference in approach and policy about migration. Donald Trump's administration, frankly, prides itself on preventing as many migrants as possible from reaching America. Whereas in Europe, governments have signed up to protecting the rights of refugees through the Refugee Convention.
And so there's a tone and a content here that really does demonstrate that there are differences of approaches on both sides of the Atlantic. I think the American administration is very happy as often as possible to make clear its feelings about its own stance and its own view of these issues.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:56
2
What criticisms did Pete Hegseth make about European migration policies?
6:56–7:53
3
How did Iran respond to the US visa issues for its World Cup delegation?
7:53–10:33
4
What are the latest developments in Ukraine's drone attacks on St. Petersburg?
10:33–31:37
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from Global News Podcast
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