Hegseth attacks Europe over migration in D-Day speech

**Pete Ross** (0:00)
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 their 9th president in 10 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...

**Aoife** (0:46)
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.

**Pete Ross** (0:57)
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 north-western Europe in 1944 Hegseth said in the years since D-Day, some European capitals had grown too comfortable with their hard-fought freedoms.

**Pete Hegseth** (1:44)
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.

**Pete Ross** (2:10)
On Friday, the US Vice President JD 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 criticizing those it says are seeking to stir up division on our streets.
Tobias Elwood is a former British government minister.

**Tobias Elwood** (2:29)
Hegseth's remarks would be discourteous, irresponsible, coming at any time from any American, let alone a senior representative.
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.

**Pete Ross** (2:52)
Our correspondent in Washington, Tom Simons, told me more about what Pete Hegseth had been saying.

**Tom Simons** (2:58)
He suggested that European countries were not doing enough to defend Western values.
He said that the men who stormed the shore on D-Day knew that liberating Europe, these are his words, industry and courage, not empty slogans, lavish summits and not communicates. 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.

**Pete Ross** (3:49)
Any sense why Washington is weighing in on this issue? No?

**Tom Simons** (3:54)
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.
And it's clearly a cultural difference between the Trump administration and, as it would see it, European governments.
Of course, he's not necessarily talking about all of the ways in which immigration is dealt with in Europe. I mean, the British government has a policy of stopping small boats coming to British shores. But clearly, Pete Hegseth is prepared to use an event, albeit a memorial event, to make a clear political point.

**Pete Ross** (4:58)
Tom Simons.
Later this week, the Men's World Cup kicks off in Mexico, who's hosting the tournament along with Canada and the US. Given this is the first Men's Football World Cup ever, where one of the host nations is receiving a country it's at war with, Iran's participation in the tournament in the US was never likely to be straightforward. The Iranian team are scheduled to play at least two games in the US, and while the players themselves have been granted visas, Tehran says 15 members of its backroom staff have been refused. The team has also had to base itself in Mexico, and Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Abou Faisal Pasandide, says the team will have to cross into the US on match day and leave the same day.