Summary
After a tense Oval Office encounter with Donald Trump and JD Vance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received a warm UK welcome, including an official audience with King Charles at Sandringham.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened a defence summit with European and NATO allies to reaffirm solidarity with Ukraine, discuss unlocking frozen Russian assets, and counter the rift caused by Trump’s accusations of Zelenskyy’s ingratitude.
European leaders fear the spat endangers Western unity and peace efforts and are vowing no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukrainian involvement.
And I’m also getting a little tired of them expecting me to be sad that this is bad for the US. A lot of the “woe is me, the US is losing influence!” Sounds almost as whiny to the non-American audience as some of the MAGA stuff about the world not being “grateful” enough for them.
The US’ international influence has been a mixed blessing for a long time. I’m kind of looking forward to seeing what Europe manages to put together as a replacement. Could be a step up.
Yeah it definitely sucked when the British Empire was dominant. But when their power declined, we had two world wars.
Hence why I said “I’m kind of looking forward to seeing what Europe manages to put together as a replacement.”
A lot of the “oh noes the US is losing influence” comes twofold from:
General sinophobia as China is often seen as the next viable global superpower.
Americans who deep down know exactly how good they’ve had it because of that influence and are suddenly scared that their own country could become the true corrupt, broke shithole it has always really been. We only ever had wealth because we dominated and stole it from the rest of the world.
I’m with you, US losing influence isn’t a bad thing. It’s only bad for US citizens, who need to get a grip on how comfortable and coddled they have really been, even if they are poor. US poor is not international poor, once again, because we stole so much wealth from the rest of the world. I say this as a US citizen who is daily disgusted by the selfishness and coddled ass attitudes of his fellow Americans.
A good example of why is how we took the worlds outpouring of compassion after 9/11 and squandered the fuck out of it by playing world police and killing untold millions in the middle east and Europe has been dealing with the aftermath for 20 fucking years now.
As someone living in Asia, the US losing influence is a really scary thing. China has been increasing their aggression in the region and the US’s presence has always been the counter to that. It was a good balance but a weaker US will tip the balance to China’s favour. Not to mention that the US has been a key factor in getting Korea and Japan to work together on security matters. Unfortunately, there’s no EU or NATO equivalent for us to rely on.
I know its a daydream but this aussie would love to join the EU.
Maybe its time for an Eastern Union? IDK just thinking out loud.
As someone living in NATO area, I wish we would start NATO 2 without the US. They can effectively veto anything they want.
Time for a new collaboration.
Isn’t that what the EU is? What are the military aspects of being in the Union? I’ve only ever heard about the economic aspects.
Eu is primarily an economic cooperation Although there are ideas for a shared army.
Exactly. I’m an Indian and I’d rather prefer USA as global superpower than China.
Well put, I keep trying to tell our local racist shitheads to direct their anger for violence by PTSD refugees at the American administrations, not at foreigners. You can imagine how well that is (not) going…
Very well said, and I echo the sentiment. Americans have been too comfortable their entire lives. Now, they may learn what it actually is to suffer and be poor.
Most Americans already know what this is like. But still they vote to make it worse.
So you think American poverty equates to levels of poverty seen in Africa?
Nothing does. The point is that America’s great “wealth” is not shared by most regular folks, the majority of whom are struggling to get by - albeit yes, with fucking sanitation.
That was not my original point, but go off.