As this podcast was recorded, European heads of state were holding an emergency summit in Paris, having been blindsided by President Trump’s willingness to enter negotiations about the future of Ukraine with Vladimir Putin - but without President Zelensky.
The Oval Office has indicated that any military assistance it gives to Kyiv will be dependent on access to its mineral deposits, and US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has ruled out the country’s NATO membership,
Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK is willing to commit troops to a peace keeping force if a settlement can be reached, but there’s a bigger picture at play here…the reshaping of the world in accordance with the dictates of MAGA.
Trump and his accomplices see a world in which major powers operate spheres of influence – so that the Americas belong to the US and Eastern Europe is Russia’s. The people of Taiwan must be feeling very twitchy right now.
The President has also made it clear that European nations will have to make a far greater contribution to its own defence – at the same time as hobbling their economies with tariffs.
When it comes to defending freedom, is seems that America is now less the Great Protector, and more the Great Protectionist.
Adrian Goldberg gets a view from Byline Times reporter Zarina Zabrisky in Odesa.
The Byline Podcast is produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White, and is funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times.
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