The world’s a stage and the players are finally taking their places. Trump and Putin, two lions in a den of hyenas, two men who don’t just talk but act. The phone call was the spark, the kindling. Now the fire’s burning and the smoke’s rising over Riyadh, where the real work begins. No time for the faint-hearted, no time for the hand-wringers, the bureaucrats, the paper-pushers, who’ve spent decades hiding behind their desks and their rules. This is about power. Unapologetic, world-shaping power. And Europe? Europe’s not invited. The Europeans are not even in the conversation. They’re the ghosts of a fading empire, the relics of a world that doesn’t exist anymore. Trump doesn’t need them. Putin doesn’t need them. The future doesn’t need them.

Constantin Von Hoffmeister