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Richard Sakwa and Volodymyr Ishchenko on what is misunderstood about this war — and why it matters for the peace we need so badly. 

In Part Two, Sakwa and Ishchenko turn to NATO’s expansion, Russia’s internal politics, and the peace proposals now being pushed. Sakwa dismisses the claim that NATO is merely defensive and rejects the idea that Russia poses a serious military threat to Western Europe. He traces the crisis to post-war settlements that shut Russia out of Europe’s security order — even after Moscow sought NATO membership. Ishchenko argues that Central European states joined NATO less out of fear of Russia than from a desire to become “European,” while Putin’s own political fears at home partly shaped the invasion. Both are skeptical of existing peace plans — yet argue that Trump’s blunt proposal, however imperial, may come closer to confronting reality. The priority: stop the killing, save as many people as possible, and prevent the ultimate catastrophe.

Richard Sakwa and Volodymyr Ishchenko on why peace was lost—and who helped destroy it.

Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine did not come from nowhere. In this first of two parts, Richard Sakwa and Volodymyr Ishchenko cut through the common narrative that reduces the war to Putin alone, without excusing the invasion itself. The failure — and in key moments, US sabotage — of an inclusive European security order after the Cold War helped lay the ground for conflict. Inside Ukraine, post Soviet class conflicts led to the weaponization of language, identity, and nationalism. And the far right used the threat of violence to block President Zelensky’s early efforts to pursue peace. Sakwa and Ishchenko show that understanding history is not justification — it is indictment.

President Donald Trump entered office backed by fossil-fuel executives, hedge-fund financiers, and the AI-military industrial complex, then used sanctions, military pressure, and trade coercion against Venezuela to dismantle national control over its oil sector—culminating in a $2 billion crude deal that redirects Venezuelan exports from China to the United States and rewards major political donors. Prof. Steve Ellner and Journalist, Ricardo Vaz explain, this outcome is not an aberration, but rather the latest chapter in a long-standing struggle over PDVSA, oil sovereignty, and U.S. hemispheric dominance—where economic warfare supplants diplomacy and state power is deployed for private gain.

Following overnight U.S. airstrikes on Caracas, the seizure of President Nicolás Maduro, and President Donald Trump’s declaration that Washington will take control of Venezuela’s oil and effectively run the country, analysts Steve Ellner and Ricardo Vaz warn that the operation constitutes an unlawful use of force. They cite the combination of military assault, extraterritorial abduction, resource seizure, and alleged extrajudicial killings at sea as violations of international law and Venezuelan sovereignty.

Paul Jay and host Barry Stevens analyze rising progressive movements, from Mamdani's victory in New York City to Sanders and AOC drawing massive crowds in red states, and why working-class consciousness has always been the real threat to American elites. They discuss why fossil fuel companies have known about the climate crisis for decades but chose denial, why AI could plan a sustainable economy, but is being used for profit and war. They examine the specific dynamics of Christian nationalism, the role of Silicon Valley in the authoritarian turn, and why the 2026 midterms could see significant progressive breakthroughs.

Paul Jay rejects the false choice between  "Putin as a new Hitler" and the anti-NATO Left's defense of Russia. Under the UN Charter and Nuremberg principles, Russia's invasion is a war of aggression — there was no imminent threat and no "sphere of influence" justifies it. At the same time, NATO expansion was provocative and deceptive, and the U.S. refusal to take it off the table helped set the stage for war.

The discussion highlights:

•The Ukrainian people's right to self-determination and to overthrow their own oligarchy;

• how the Iraq War normalized lawless aggression and weakened global norms;

• the role of Russian, Ukrainian, U.S., and European oligarchies in prolonging the conflict;

• why parts of the Left blur first principles by excusing one imperialism to oppose another;

• China's strategic interest in sustaining the conflict;

• Ukraine and Gaza serve as "battle labs" for AI weapons and companies like Palantir.

• NATO functions as a "protection racket," getting Europe to increase military spending to 5%.

• and why a negotiated peace — even with territorial concessions — may be necessary to create space for democratic struggle against oligarchic power on all sides.

With host Barry Stevens.

Paul Jay breaks down what’s really driving Trump’s aggressive moves against Venezuela in 2025. Spoiler: it’s not about drugs or democracy—it’s about pushing China out of Latin America.

In this conversation with Barry Stevens, Paul explains how China has become the dominant trading partner across South America without military projection, why the US is reviving the Monroe Doctrine, and how manufactured pretexts (from “Soviet expansionism” to “weapons of mass destruction” to “the war on drugs”) have justified American intervention for decades. Also discussed is why the Venezuelan economy is such a mess.

In Part Two, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson confronts the U.S. attacks on civilian boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific—killings now broadcast openly on television—and says they violate not only international law but the military code he lived by as an Army officer. With Pete Hegseth installed as Secretary of War, Wilkerson argues that the United States is sliding into a new era of impunity, where the drug “war” becomes a pretext for murder, the laws that govern armed conflict are discarded, and the nation risks its own Constitution and a real war.

In Part One, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson explores how Trump’s new National Security Strategy revives the Monroe Doctrine in a sweeping attempt to reassert U.S. dominance across the Americas. Pushing China out of Latin America, he argues, will not prevent a showdown—only shift its timing, as the United States simultaneously pours resources into Indo-Pacific military power. With Washington drawing back from Europe and targeting Venezuela and its neighbors under the convenient banner of the "war on drugs,” Wilkerson suggests that this doctrine risks undermining the Constitution and edging the country toward a real war. With host Barry Stevens.

Opposition figure María Corina Machado dedicates her Nobel Prize to Trump, even as analysts argue her path to power has relied on destabilization rather than peace, according to Venezuelanalysis Ricardo Vaz.