US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the Caribbean on Wednesday looking for ways forward on violence-torn Haiti and to show support for oil-rich Guyana in its dispute with Venezuela.Donald Trump’s top diplomat landed in Jamaica, where he will attend a summit of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), before stops Thursday both in Guyana and neighboring Suriname.At the Caribbean summit, Rubio will meet the leaders of Haiti as well as host Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.”We’ll work together to crack down on illegal immigration, violence and contraband in our region, and hold accountable those who perpetrate financial fraud,” Rubio said in a post about his trip on X.It is Rubio’s second trip south of the US border since taking office as the Trump administration focuses on preventing migration.Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, has been at a breaking point for years with the collapse of government authority, rampant violence and the crumbling of public health services.A Kenyan-led international security mission supported by former president Joe Biden has deployed to Haiti in hopes of bringing stability, but the troop force has come up short and violence has resumed.More than 60,000 people have been displaced in one month inside the capital Port-au-Prince in a resurgence of gang violence, the International Organization for Migration said last week.Rubio has made an exemption to sweeping cuts in US assistance worldwide to allow the continuation of support for the Haiti mission.The Trump administration has yet to announce new ideas on Haiti, beyond revoking deportation protections for thousands of Haitians living in the United States.Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America, said Rubio hoped to speak with Caribbean nations to hear their views on Haiti.”The circumstances are dire,” he told reporters.”We are developing a strategy in order to be able to continue to support the Haitian National Police,” he said. “It is a strategy in development.”Rubio, visiting the Dominican Republic last month, said the international mission in Haiti “needs to be broadened for it to be able to eliminate these gangs.” “If that can be achieved, we need to discuss the future of Haiti,” which can include incentives for domestic manufacturing, Rubio said.- Guyana’s oil reserves -Rubio will be the third successive US secretary of state to visit Guyana with interest spiking after the discovery of major oil reserves.The South American country now has the largest crude oil reserves in the world on a per capita basis.The oil is concentrated in the Essequibo border region which is disputed with Venezuela, led by leftist US nemesis Nicolas Maduro.Guyana earlier this month denounced what it called a Venezuelan military vessel’s incursion in its waters.Venezuela denied any violation and requested a meeting between Maduro and Guyanese President Irfaan Ali, who dismissed the offer.Claver-Carone likened Guyana to oil-rich Gulf Arab nations where the United States stations troops, in recent decades due to tensions with Iran.”We want to work with Guyana in order to ensure the cooperation there and its guarantees on its security. We’ve seen the threats from Venezuela,” he said.Trump has severed a deal by Chevron to operate in Venezuela and threatened a new tariff effective April 2 for countries that buy Venezuelan oil.Ali, despite his cooperation with the United States, said that Caribbean nations have concerns they would raise with Rubio about another threatened Trump move — fines for use of Chinese-made container ships.”We have to have early conversations to ensure that we mitigate or minimize the impact on the region,” Ali said.If Trump goes ahead with the move, “it will cause tremendous spikes in the cost of freight for virtually every sector in CARICOM,” Patrick Antoine, the chief of the Caribbean Private Sector Organisation (CPSO), told AFP. 

US magazine the Atlantic on Wednesday published the full exchange of leaked messages between officials laying out plans for an attack on Yemen, as the White House fought fiercely to defend itself over the slip-up.Details including the times of strikes and types of planes used were shown in screenshots of the chat between President Donald Trump’s top officials on the commercial Signal messaging app.The story broke earlier this week after an Atlantic journalist was accidentally added to the chat, and the magazine said it was revealing full details of the attack plans now because Trump’s team insisted that no classified details were involved.The White House reacted defiantly, launching a coordinated attack in which it slammed the magazine’s journalists as “scumbags” and dismissed the story as a “hoax.””There weren’t details, and there was nothing in there that compromised, and it had no impact on the attack, which was very successful,” Trump told podcaster Vince Coglianese when asked about the latest revelations.Vice President JD Vance, who was on the Signal conversation, said The Atlantic had “oversold” the story. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who has taken responsibility for accidentally adding Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to the chat, likewise insisted that the Signal chain revealed “no locations” and “NO WAR PLANS.”Goldberg revealed Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information in the Signal chat about imminent strikes against the Huthi rebels on March 15. The magazine — which initially said it published only the broad outlines about the attacks to protect US troops — said it had published the full details after the Trump repeatedly denied that any classified details had been included.The texting was done barely half an hour before the first US warplanes took off — and two hours before the first target was expected to be bombed.- ‘Bombs will definitely drop’ – “1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)”, Hegseth writes, referring to F-18 US Navy jets, before adding that “Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME.””1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets).”Hegseth also writes about the use of US drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles missiles. A short time later, Waltz sent real-time intelligence on the aftermath of an attack, writing that US forces had identified the target “walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.”The full version of the chat group also revealed the informal side of the high-stakes chat, including when Waltz wrote a garbled message and Vance replied “What?” Waltz explained he was “typing too fast.”The chat included emojis of a fist, an American flag, a muscled arm and a flame.The Atlantic said its full publication Wednesday included everything in the Signal chain other than one CIA name that the agency had asked not to be revealed.It added that it had asked the government whether there would be any problem in publishing the rest of the material, given the official insistence that no secrets were shared.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had replied insisting there was no classified material involved but adding that “we object to the release,” the magazine said.The depth of detail has fueled a furious outcry from Democrats in Congress who are accusing the Trump officials of incompetence and putting US military operations in peril. The House of Representatives discussed the scandal in a hearing Wednesday.The story also threatens to cause further ructions between Washington and its allies, after Goldberg revealed disparaging comments by Vance and Hegseth about “pathetic” European nations during their chat.The Trump administration has stepped up attacks on the Huthi rebels in response to constant attempts to sink and disrupt shipping through the strategic Red Sea.The Huthi rebels, who have controlled much of Yemen for more than a decade, are part of the “axis of resistance” of pro-Iran groups staunchly opposed to Israel and the US. 

President Donald Trump’s two months back in the White House have been marked by soaring friction between Washington and its European allies.Here’s a look at the key issues where the United States has shifted gears, including tariffs, support for Ukraine and urging Europe to take greater control of its own defense.- ‘Pathetic’ freeloaders -A stunning security breach that saw a journalist inadvertently added to a chat group of top Trump officials discussing plans to attack Huthi rebels in Yemen revealed highly critical comments about European allies. In the chat, a user identified as US Vice President JD Vance expressed doubts about conducting military strikes on the rebels, arguing that Europe was more impacted than the US by the group’s attacks on Red Sea shipping. “I just hate bailing Europe out again,” Vance wrote in the group.A user identified as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth replies: “I fully share your loathing of European freeloading. It’s PATHETIC.”Trump echoed Hegseth’s comments Tuesday. “Yeah, I think they’ve been freeloading,” he told reporters. “The European Union’s been absolutely terrible to us on trade.”- Hostile speech -Vance also shocked Europe when he used a February speech at a security forum in Munich to attack EU policies on immigration and free speech.The vice president charged that “across Europe, free speech, I fear, is in retreat,” and that censorship was a bigger threat than Russian or Chinese military aggression. “No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted immigrants,” he added, defending populist right-wing parties.- ‘Screw’ the US -Trump said last month that the EU was formed to “screw” the United States, laying bare his hostility to the longtime US partner as he detailed new tariffs.”But now I’m president,” he said.Trump’s 25-percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports took effect on March 12. EU countermeasures are set to begin in April.- ‘Have to have’ Greenland -Trump has insisted he wants the United States to take over Greenland, a Danish territory, for national security purposes and has refused to rule out the use of force to achieve this.”We need Greenland for international safety and security. We need it. We have to have it,” Trump told podcaster Vince Coglianese Wednesday. “I hate to put it that way, but we’re going to have to have it.”The vast territory is located strategically in the Arctic and is rich in mineral resources.Vance has insisted the president is not afraid of ruffling feathers on the issue, citing national security.”He doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us,” Vance told Fox News last month.- Shifting power with Putin -Perhaps the most shocking shift has been on Russia and Ukraine — best epitomized by a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymr Zelensky at the White House on February 28 in which the US President and Vice President JD Vance berated their wartime ally in front of the world’s media.Trump has appeared to lean towards Russian President Vladimir Putin, undermining Zelensky’s legitimacy and suggesting that Ukraine was responsible for the Russian invasion, rather than Moscow.In February he blindsided Kyiv and European allies by agreeing to launch peace talks after a phone call with Putin.European powers insisted that they and Kyiv must have a seat at the table of any future negotiations — but days later, top US officials met Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia to lay the ground for talks.Europe was not represented, nor was it in the latest round of Saudi discussions Sunday and Monday.And in a seismic shift at the United Nations, Washington sided with Moscow in two votes last month, avoiding condemnation of Putin’s war in Ukraine.When Britain and France said they would be willing to deploy ground troops in Ukraine, Vance responded by mocking the prospect of sending “20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years.”