President Donald Trump was the 2019 commencement speaker at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Thursday. “In all things and ways, we are putting America first, and it’s about time,” Trump told the graduating class of just under 1,000 cadets. “And we are restoring the fundamental principle that our first obligation and highest loyalty is to the American citizen. No longer will we sacrifice America’s interests to any foreign power. We don’t do that anymore.” Across the country at Harvard University, new graduates heard a very different message on commencement day.

Germany's Angela Merkel gave the commencement address at Harvard on Thursday. In the era of Trump and "America first," Merkel has been seen as a forceful voice for shared western values of democracy, human rights and multilateralism. But Merkel is stepping off the global stage in 2021. The World's Matthew Bell reports.

Unlike the Iraq war of 2003 when Europe was split in its support of the US, all of Europe now disagrees with the American approach to Iran. If the US were to use military force, there would be no European support and the sad likelihood of unifying Europe on an anti-American basis.

In word portraits, those who know the German chancellor, Harvard’s Commencement speaker, explain her rise to longtime prominence

The policies of the Trump Administration have produced an international alignment, which never existed before: China and Europe (EU) now find themselves on the same side in a global conflict where the American president attacks multilateralism, has withdrawn from major international trade agreements, has unilaterally imposed tariffs, and questioned the validity of the WTO.

When contemplating Brexit, particularly a ”hard” Brexit without agreements with the EU, the outside world is deeply puzzled how Britain could produce such a calamitous act of self-harm, severely hurting its economy, undermining its international standing, and possibly threatening its national integrity. While Brexit will hurt the EU economically, it will not undermine the EU’s global role as the world’s second largest economy. Brexit has also had some unexpected effects that strengthen the EU.