Von der Leyen tries to stem tide on global threats ― from Trump to AI and climate – POLITICO

STRASBOURG ― Ursula von der Leyen used her State of the Union speech Wednesday to rally against a world that's making Europe less powerful and poorer, where AI is threatening centuries of certainty and in which climate change risks destroying it.

In a longer and more passionate speech than the EU has been used to, the European Commission president made the case for "independence" ― economically, militarily and technologically.

"Europe has chosen to forge its own path," she said, in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, alongside special guest Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who shares many of the same perspectives for his country. This was a "complex age of great possibilities and great perils," she said.