Tens of thousands join pro-Europe rally in Rome, amid worries over European Union's plan to rearm

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Tens of thousands join pro-Europe rally in Rome, amid worries over European Union's plan to rearm

2025-03-16 02:49 Last Updated At：02:51

ROME (AP) — Tens of thousands of Italians joined a pro-Europe rally in Rome's city center Saturday, waving blue European Union flags in a sign of support and unity as a European push for rearmament divides the country.

The initiative, supported by most of the center-left opposition parties, despite their different positions, was launched by Italian journalist Michele Serra at the end of February, with an editorial in the Italian daily La Repubblica titled: “Let’s say something European.”

“I wanted to organize a large demonstration of citizens supporting Europe, its unity and its freedom, with no party flags, only European flags,” Serra said, launching the slogan: “Here we make Europe, or we die.”

The initiative was born in response to U.S. President Donald Trump ’s destabilizing policies, which created an unprecedented rift between Europe and the U.S., strained over the war in Ukraine and an ongoing tariff battle.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has reluctantly backed an EU plan to rearm Europe over concerns that the proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen might weigh on Italy’s giant debt, diverting much-needed funds to weapons spending.

The EU plan aims to generate around 800 billion euros over the next four years, the bulk of which will come from member states increasing their national spending on defense and security.

Internally, Meloni openly criticized the project, rejecting the term “rearm” as misleading and encouraged European partners to focus instead on common defense and security.

Organizers said Saturday that the pro-Europe rally, which filled Rome’s central Piazza del Popolo with at least 30,000 people, reunited Italians on different sides and voting for opposite parties “in the name of democracy.”

“We are here to defend freedom and democracy," said Daniela Condotto, one of the demonstrators. “These are concepts that we got used to over 80 years, but in reality they need to be defended, we cannot take them as a given.”

Right-wing government parties snubbed the demonstration, standing behind Meloni, who has been struggling in her attempt to play a mediating role between Trump and the EU.

“There must be support for Europe, but with concrete reforms, not symbolic events,” said Antonio Tajani, foreign minister and vice premier ahead of Saturday’s rally.

Vice Premier Matteo Salvini, leader of the eurosceptic League's party, was openly critical. “While some people demonstrate with flags, we work to change this Europe, which crushes workers, farmers and entrepreneurs with its absurd rules,” he said.

Associated Press journalist Trisha Thomas contributed to this report.

US and Iran-backed Houthis both vow escalation after airstrikes target rebels in Yemen

2025-03-17 05:15 Last Updated At：05:20

CAIRO (AP) — The United States and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are both vowing escalation after the U.S. launched airstrikes to deter the rebels from attacking military and commercial vessels on one of the world's busiest shipping corridors.

The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the overnight U.S. strikes killed at least 53 people, including five women and two children, and wounded almost 100 in the capital of Sanaa and other provinces, including Saada, the rebels’ stronghold on the border with Saudi Arabia.

“We’re not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS on Sunday. He said these are not the one-off retaliation strikes the Biden administration carried out after Houthi attacks.

President Donald Trump on Saturday vowed to use “overwhelming lethal force” until the Houthis cease their attacks, and warned that Tehran would be held “fully accountable” for their actions.

The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea, sinking two vessels, in what they call acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.

The attacks stopped when a Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in January — a day before Trump took office — but last week the Houthis said they would renew attacks against Israeli vessels after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month.

There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.

The overnight airstrikes were one of the most extensive attacks against the Houthis since the war in Gaza began in October 2023.

Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz, on Sunday told ABC that the strikes “actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out.” He didn't identify them or give evidence. Rubio said some Houthi facilities had been destroyed.

The Houthis’ political bureau has said the rebels will respond to the U.S. strikes and “meet escalation with escalation.”

The rebels on Sunday claimed to have targeted the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group with missiles and a drone, but two U.S. officials told The Associated Press they were not tracking anything. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

The spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement called for “utmost restraint and a cessation of all military activities,” while warning of the “grave risks” to the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest nation.

Rubio said that over the past 18 months the Houthis had attacked the U.S. Navy “directly” 174 times and targeted commercial shipping 145 times using “guided precision anti-ship weaponry.”

The attacks sparked the most serious combat the U.S. Navy had seen since World War II.

On Sunday, the head of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Hossein Salami, denied his country was involved in the Houthis' attacks, saying it “plays no role in setting the national or operational policies” of the militant groups it is allied with across the region, according to state-run TV.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, writing on X, urged the U.S. to halt its airstrikes and said Washington cannot dictate Iran's foreign policy.

The U.S. and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the rebels. The U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said was bound for the Houthis.

The United States, Israel and Britain previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but the new operation was conducted solely by the U.S. It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.

The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, is in the Red Sea and was part of the mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region.

Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, and Tara Copp and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war