Welcome to The World in 10.
In an increasingly uncertain world, this is The Times' daily podcast dedicated to global security.
With me, Toby Gillis, and Alex Dibble.
Hours before it was due to begin in London on Wednesday morning, UK time,
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pulled out of a meeting with European and Ukrainian ministers aimed at securing a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
It was a sudden U-turn.
causing an official downgrading of the talks from ministerial to merely official level.
By the afternoon, J.D.
Vance, the Vice President of the United States, had spoken,
revealing that they had put a plan for peace on the table and insisting that both Ukraine and Russia would have to cede territory.
So how did that offer end US involvement in the London talks?
And what does it signify for the immediate future?
Our guest today is Scott Lucas, Professor of American Studies at the Clinton Institute in Dublin.
Scott, can we assume that the White House caught wind of something that forced this Rubio U-turn?
I think we can go back to what happened last Thursday at the first meeting between the US,
Ukraine and European representatives in Paris and put this all together.
At the time when that meeting took place last week, we're like,
well, now this is really big because this is a three-way meeting.
The Russians are not there.
This could be really big in terms of...