The news from Alaska caused shockwaves in every capital city of Europe. I refer, of course, not to ordinary citizens, but to that special elite of wise men and women who like to call themselves our leaders.

On Tuesday night, big protests were held against Zelensky in Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, and Odessa after he forced through a law that would undermine Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies. Yesterday, these protests continued and spread to other areas including Kharkov, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Nikolaev, Poltava and Chernihiv.

“Europe is going to pay in a BIG way, as they should, and it will be your win”, NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte boasted to Donald Trump. Indeed, the NATO alliance of western imperialist powers agreed to up their ‘defence’ spending to five percent of GDP over the next decade, at their recent summit in The Hague. The European arms industry bosses were no doubt delighted.

The war in Ukraine continues well into its third year. But since the election of Donald Trump, the dynamics have changed dramatically.

The Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the Second World War, but it was with the Battle of Kursk in July 1943 that Germany's fate was definitively sealed. However, the fact that the war was effectively lost did not prevent the Nazi leadership from continuing to fight until the end, and the end took almost two years to arrive.

The Chinese have an old saying: the greatest misfortune that can befall a man is to live in interesting times. The truth of that ancient wisdom has now suddenly dawned on the rulers of the western world. 

What we have seen today in the Oval Office was shocking. A shouting match between Trump, JD Vance and Zelensky. The monkey is not usually supposed to go off the script set by the organ-grinder, and if it does it will be put in its place, sharply.

A single phone call last week signalled the death of the so-called western alliance and the collapse of the system of world relations that has held sway since the Second World War. That phone call was, of course, between Trump and Putin.

On 28 January, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained five Ukrainian anti-war activists, accusing them of involvement with the Workers’ Front of Ukraine (RFU). The RCI declares its solidarity with those facing repression from the Ukrainian state.

In this episode of Against the Stream, Hamid Alizadeh and Niklas Albin Svensson, from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International, discussed the reckless escalation of the Ukraine war by Biden, Trump’s controversial picks for his administration, and the death of the American Dream.

Oh yes, you read the title correctly. An angry old man in Washington and a psychologically deranged president in Kyiv have been busy jointly plotting a plan that may potentially push the world into an abyss.

This Thursday, comrades Jorge Martín and Hamid Alizadeh of the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International recorded a special podcast episode on Gaza, Ukraine and world relations. Instead of our regular format, this one addresses the burning questions of the day in a slightly different format.

The US has just announced another $8 billion tranche of deadly aid to prolong the war in Ukraine. Even though it has long been clear that Ukraine has lost, a section of the western imperialists are determined to fight to the last drop of Ukrainian blood. Meanwhile, Zelensky, for his own political reasons, like a gambler doubling down, has opened a new, bloody front in Kursk.

“‘Curiouser and curiouser!’ Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”  (Lewis Carol, Alice in Wonderland)

As I write these lines, the headlines of the newspapers are dominated by the shock announcement that Russia would be “at war” with the United States and its allies if they lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range western missiles for the purpose of deep strikes on Russian territory.