Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
Spare a thought for Bridget Brink as she thinks about what to do next having resigned last week as US ambassador to Ukraine because of what the FT calls policy disagreements with Donald Trump.
She’s a career diplomat reportedly pressured by administration officials who “questioned her willingness” to support their Ukraine strategy – to end the war as soon as possible and to normalise US relations with Russia.
But she seems to have run out of friends in Kyiv too, having failed initially to identify a missile strike on President Zelensky’s home town earlier this month as Russian.
In other diplomatic news, Mike Huckabee – evangelical Christian, former TV host and Arkansas governor – is to be the new US ambassador to Israel.
He backs Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, so his confirmation by the Senate (by Republicans and one Democrat) marked what Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu called “a great day for the Israeli-American alliance”.
Democrats called Huckabee “woefully unfit”.
Photo credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
