The chief of the European Union's executive on Tuesday proposed an 800 billion euro (USD 841 billion) plan to beef up defences of EU nations to lessen the impact of potential US disengagement and provide Ukraine with military muscle to negotiate with Russia following the freeze of US aid to the embattled nation. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the massive REARM Europe package will be put to the 27 EU leaders who will meet in Brussels on Thursday in an emergency meeting following a week of increasing political uncertainty from Washington, where President Donald Trump questioned both his alliance to the continent and the defence of Ukraine. I do not need to describe the grave nature of the threats that we face," von der Leyen said. Key to the quandary of EU nations has been an unwillingness to spend much on defense over the past decades as they hid under the US nuclear umbrella and a sluggish economy, which creates challenges for a quick ramp-up of such ...