Dispatch from the Front Lines: Would now be a good time for a labour movement?
Also wanted: better leadership at TIFF, and better allies for Ukraine.
Hey everyone, we hope you had a great week and that your weekend is also going great. Lots to talk about today. So let’s not dally.
As ever, to help prime the pump for this dispatch, you should check out the latest episode of The Line Podcast.
Also, check out this week’s episode of On The Line, where Matt Gurney speaks with Denys Prevost, a retired firefighter, about the danger in Nova Scotia, and also with Andrew MacDougall about the danger of social media … and how we can start to put that particular genie back into the bottle.
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Now, on with the dispatch.
We aren't really sure yet what to conclude about the meeting between the presidents of the United States and Russia in Alaska this weekend. The summit between Trump and Putin, intended to end the fighting in Ukraine, did not seem to go well. After some public remarks and closed-session negotiations, both presidents skipped a planned luncheon and flew back to their respective capitals.
Both sides have made conflicting claims over what actually was accomplished, if anything, with perhaps the only clear statement having come from Trump's acknowledgment that no deal was concluded. As for Putin, no doubt he got what he wanted from the meeting alone. He got photos of himself being received by the president of the United States, walking down a red carpet laid out for him by American troops. While the result of the summit seems inconclusive, we dare say Putin won on optics alone.