2025-03-24
5 分钟The Economist. Hi, John Pridot here.
I host Checks and Balance, our podcast on US politics.
Welcome to Editors' Picks.
Here's an article from the latest edition of The Economist handpicked by our team and read aloud.
I hope you enjoy it.
They talked by phone for over two hours,
but Vladimir Putin left Donald Trump with almost nothing to show for it,
a slap in the face that only a man possessed of unbounded chutzpah could pretend was a win.
A week earlier,
negotiators for America and Ukraine had agreed on a 30-day ceasefire in a conflict that has lasted for over three years.
Mr Trump had said that if Russia did not sign up,
he might hit it with tough new sanctions.
In the event, he rolled over.
Even Boris Johnson, a former British Prime Minister who admires Mr Trump,
declared that Putin is laughing at us.
Instead of an unconditional ceasefire,
Mr Putin proposed only that both sides stop striking each other's energy infrastructure,
an area where Ukraine has been landing some weighty blows on the invader.
For anything further to happen, says the Russian government,
Ukraine must accept a freeze on foreign military aid and an end to conscription and training,