Speaking in Munich last week, America’s vice-president, J.D. Vance, offered a taste of how the home of fine wines, classical architecture and welfare cheques faces humiliation, when he ridiculed Europe as decadent and undemocratic.

We are at that moment in Animal Farm when the gentle carthorse Clover looks through the window to see the pigs playing cards and drinking a toast with men.

The U.S. on Friday proposed a draft United Nations resolution to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the proposal pits Washington against an effort by Kyiv and European allies to have their own text adopted on Monday by the General Assembly.

Divides between the United States, Kyiv, and its European allies deepened after the Trump administration released a draft of a United Nations resolution regarding the Ukraine war. On Monday, the U.N.’s General Assembly is set to vote on a resolution that marks the third anniversary of the start of the Ukraine war.