Video taking off 17x its usual first day

Rubio's "we will end the ICC" meets Tomoko Akane's reply

USA TODAY puts the secretary of state's sanctions announcement next to the court president's six-minute answer: the tribunal "will not be deterred."

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USA TODAY Story of October 10, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 281,718 views a day, 17 times a normal first day on this channel (16,906).

US sanctions ICC: Marco Rubio slams 'rogue court,' tribunal president blasts attack on 'legal order'

"Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC." Marco Rubio says it about half a minute into USA TODAY's report on the new U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court. In his recorded statement, the secretary of state says President Trump will never allow the court to prosecute Americans, announces a ban on transactions with what he calls a "rogue court," and asks allies to help rein it in.

Most of the video belongs to the reply. Tomoko Akane, the court's president, calls the sanctions unprecedented and says plainly, "The Court firmly rejects these sanctions." She describes the court as an independent judicial institution of last resort and turns to the victims of mass atrocities whose cases it hears. She calls the measures an attempt to intimidate the court's staff, then asks member states to act in its defense. Her last line asks them to stand up "for law, not force."

It is the clearest start of the channel's day, around 112,000 views in six hours, and the comments arrived even faster: already many times a usual full first day. Viewers mostly write about accountability, about whether a court should answer to politics, and about the timing. A shorter follow-up on the channel notes that the sanctions came hours after a former judge of the court was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

USA TODAY's footage of Donald Trump leaving the White House with Mike Tyson for a Syracuse rally also started well above usual, but the court story drew far more.

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