Despite the muddle and contradictions, we need to believe there's a plan here

If I were Volodymyr Zelenskyy, I'd be thinking, either Keir Starmer has a fiendishly intelligent and subtle mind, or he is bananas. Starmer channelled the giants of British history (everyone we're not embarrassed of: basically, Winston Churchill) yesterday. He said we were at a "crossroads in history". He used the phrase "we are gathered here today", which I suppose was literally true, as they were, but also had a strange churchy overtone, as if he were trying to borrow the actual authority of God.

- Zoe Williams

Starmer was asked by journalists whether he considered the US to be inside or outside his plan for a durable peace, and he was trenchant. "Europe and the US have to stand together and that position must be strong"; "I do not accept that the US is an unreliable ally". It was an absolute head-scratcher, because the US does not seek a sovereign Ukraine, safe in perpetuity from Russian aggression. Donald Trump and JD Vance showed the world what they think on Friday. That meeting in the White House was easily the most gruesome display of bullying and manipulation that televised geopolitics has ever put on. So in what world does the guy you just hugged get to walk away proud and sovereign, with US backing? In what world is Trump on the same team as these assembled leaders?