THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The mood is grim in The Hague as hundreds of diplomats, lawyers and activists gather this week for the annual meeting of the International Criminal Court to discuss unprecedented challenges including U.S. sanctions, Russian arrest warrants and worries over the court’s future.
During her opening address Monday, the court's president, Judge Tomoko Akane, told delegations from 125 member states that the institution remains defiant.
“We never accept any kind of pressure,” Akane said.
But with no prosecutor at the helm, multiple staff members under sanction and countries pulling out, many outside the meeting are wondering how the court will survive.
The ICC was established in 2002 as the world’s permanent court of last resort to prosecute suspects accused of the most heinous atrocities: war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression.
The court’s oversight body, the Assembly of States Parties, is holding its 24th annual meeting, which is scheduled to continue through Saturday. Delegates will approve the court’s yearly budget and debate proposals related to the institution’s functions.
At the meeting held in a theater and conference center that will soon host a performance of The Nutcracker ballet, court officials are seeking to obtain commitments from member nations for 195 million euros ($227 million) to fund operations next year.
Nine staff members, including six judges and the court’s chief prosecutor, have been sanctioned by U.S. President Donald Trump for pursuing investigations into U.S. and Israeli officials. The U.S. is among the powerful nations that are not members of the court, along with Israel, Russia and China.
The U.S. sanctions have taken a toll on the court’s work across a broad array of investigations at a time when the institution is juggling ever more demands on its resources.
They have “cast an odd shadow over the event,” Human Rights First Director Adam Keith told The Associated Press.
Two U.S.-based human rights groups pulled out of events, concerned about possible sanctions violations. Another organization, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights, kept U.S. staff out of meetings where any of the sanctioned staff were present.
An item not on the agenda but widely discussed in the hallways is the ongoing investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who has temporarily stepped down while a United Nations watchdog conducts an external probe.
However, the report has yet to be filed a year after the allegations against Khan were submitted.
After repeated delays, the report is scheduled to be finalized at the end of the year, according to senior diplomatic sources who are not authorized to speak on the record. A panel of judges appointed by the Assembly of States Parties will then have at least 30 days to evaluate its contents and make recommendations.
“I am well aware that states have been frustrated with the length of this process,” assembly President Päivi Kaukoranta said in her opening address Monday.
Since last year's meeting, four countries have said they will pull out of the court.
Hungary refused to arrest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite an ICC arrest warrant in April before announcing its intention to withdraw from court membership.
In September, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger also said they would leave but have not yet formalized their departures.
In January, Italy, where the court’s foundational treaty, the Rome Statute, was signed in 2001, sent a wanted Libya warlord home rather than turning him over to the ICC.
The court has no police force and relies on cooperation from member states to arrest suspects and send them to The Hague to face justice.
The courtrooms have seen a spike in activity.
At the start of 2025, the court was in the final stages of the only remaining item on the docket: the trial of Central African Republic militia commander Mahamat Said Abdel Kani, who is charged with multiple counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
As the year draws to a close, the court has taken custody of two more suspects. In March, former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was sent to the ICC on a warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity for deadly anti-drugs crackdowns he oversaw while in office.
On Monday, Germany handed over Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri, who was arrested in July and accused of crimes against humanity and war crimes while serving as a senior commander in a Tripoli prison.
FILE - A general view of the exterior of the International Criminal Court is seen in The Hague, Netherlands, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump formally kicked off celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary on Wednesday night by working to get the country excited again — about himself.
The president hosted a rally on Washington's National Mall, including a series of flyovers by stealth bombers, music from military bands, and Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA.”
“There has never been anything like the United States of America, and together we are making it bigger and better and stronger and far more exceptional than ever before,” Trump said. He said he'd restored the country to greatness, proclaiming, ”Nobody's laughing at us anymore."
The event comes as Trump works to convince Americans ahead of critical November midterm elections that he's put the unpopular Iran war in the rearview mirror, with oil prices easing as the Strait of Hormuz has started to reopen in the wake of an interim deal to end the war with Tehran.
It launches weeks of celebrations about America and its 1776 founding as part of “The Great American State Fair” on the mall, the national park that stretches from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.
But Trump’s appearance was only announced after several musicians — including Young MC, Martina McBride and the Commodores — canceled their concerts because of concerns the event had become politicized.
Instead, among those addressing the crowd was Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who slammed the musicians who backed out. He called Trump “the greatest president that’s ever existed in this country since George Washington.”
The lawn was almost full but empty spaces remained. From the stage, Trump could likely to see the neon colors of the giant Ferris wheel erected in front of the Capitol.
Attendees included Karen and Brian Ontrap, who drove 500-plus miles from northwest Ohio with their children.
They planned the trip in January to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary and, for some in the group, see Washington for the first time.
Standing in the shade near the stage before the president spoke, Karen Ontrap said the pair support the president “100%.” They were among the early arrivals to the section of the National Mall that was cordoned off, with a concert-style stage decked in U.S. flags at one end and a mock White House exterior at the other.
Organizers distributed rectangular cardboard American flags that some attendees used for shade.
On the menu for the crowd: burgers, sausages and turkey legs. The program felt a lot like a summer concert, expect for the variety of American flag-themed outfits, from overalls to skirts to hats. There were also plenty of “Make America Great Again” hats.
Trump has struggled to deliver the presidency that he advertised to voters — causing his approval rating to dwell at a low 37%, according to the most recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research polling.
Democrats say his botched repairs to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool and the resulting algae outbreak are a sign that he’s spending taxpayer money on vanity projects instead of the nation's legacy.
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said the Trump-affiliated group organizing the 250th anniversary was selling access to special interests and redrafting the nation's founding to the president's liking, based on documents he presented at a congressional hearing earlier this year.
“It should be about bringing us together,” Huffman said. “He's trying to make this 250th celebration all about him.”
Trump’s fondness for showmanship has not been a match for public anxiety about his presidency. Only 33% of U.S. adults approve of his economic leadership, with favorability at 40% on immigration and 34% on Iran.
“It’s clear that Trump’s preoccupations in his second term — from Iran to the Washington reflecting pool — are not those of most members of his base, let alone other Americans,” said Daniel Treisman, a politics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “That explains his unusually low approval ratings.”
Inflation is still higher than what Trump inherited and it has been outpacing wage growth. The budget deficit remains on a path upward that keeps interest rates high. Investments in artificial intelligence are driving growth, but they come with fears of middle-class job losses such that the construction of data centers needed for America’s tech economy have become controversial politically.
Trump has fueled dramas over tariffs, NATO, immigration, ownership of Greenland and his own renovations of iconic buildings and monuments in Washington — generating a flood of controversy that has pushed things the administration sees as accomplishments — such as the capture of Venezuela’s former leader Nicolás Maduro — off the public radar.
Joe and Natalie Cox took the Washington area's subway from nearby Arlington, Virginia, “out of curiosity and to mark an historic occasion,” Joe said.
Joe Cox, a retired Army officer and military contractor, and Natalie, who worked for 30 years at the Red Cross, suggested the events planned for Washington were a time for the country to come together.
“It feels like a new spirit of unity,” Natalie Cox said.
Still, Trump was the main attraction for others. Jacob Wankasky and his family, traveling from Buffalo, New York, peeled off a day early from their trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania, when he and his wife, Jennifer, realized they could see Trump before their planned visit Thursday to the State Fair with their children, ages 4 and 6.
“It’s a once in a lifetime chance,” Jacob Wankasky said as the Marine Corps Band played “Stars and Stripes Forever” as part of the runup to Trump's speech.
In a bright red “America Is Back” ballcap, the 42-year-old antique mall owner, said Trump’s return to the White House was a relief in a time of “insanity.”
People arrive before President Donald Trump speaks at the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
People arrive before President Donald Trump speaks at the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
People arrive to hear President Donald Trump speak at the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)
The Freedom 250 Ferris Wheel is seen before the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
The stage is set before President Donald Trump speaks at the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
People play a game of cards before President Donald Trump speaks at the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
People arrive to hear President Donald Trump speak at the opening of the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey Jr.)
President Donald Trump is pictured in the Oval Office of the White House during an executive order signing about quantum computing, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
France's military aerobatic team, the Patrouille de France, flys over Washington in a tribute to America's 250th birthday, Monday, June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
An arch is pictured as preparations continue for the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, Monday, June 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
President Donald Trump dances on stage at a Mack Trucks facility, Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in Macungie, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
