You can always tell that there is no overwhelming news stories when each of the Sunday newspapers chooses a different headline. But the international news seems unremittingly grim in one way or another. In Gaza, despite being practically flattened to the ground children as young as 8 years old are being regarded as suspects should they inadvertently stray near to the Israeli army (IDF – Israel Defence Force) positions, There is also a report than a young Palestinian baby died not from a disease process or injury but just of hypothermia ie, the cold. the Ukrainian situation also does not look very hopeful. The Ukrainian leader, Zelenskyy is due to meet with Donald Trump in his Florida hide away but despite a peace plan being reportedly 90% ready, Putin appears to have made n o concessions of any kind and the Russian leader knows that as long as Trump is in the White Hose, then all he has to do is to sit tight and slowly consolidate the military gains made on the ground. Meanwhile, Kyev is being bombarded with hundreds of Russian drones on a nightly basis and at least a third of the city is without power. But the Ukrainian leader is going to present a plan to Trump which seems eminently sensible (and one, incidentally, which I suggested in this blog some months ago) Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has given details of an updated peace plan offering Russia the potential withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the east and the creation of a demilitarised zone in their place. Detailing the 20-point plan agreed by US and Ukrainian envoys in Florida at the weekend, Zelensky said the Russians would respond on Wednesday once the Americans had spoken to them. Describing the plan as ‘the main framework for ending the war’, he said it proposed security guarantees from the US, Nato and Europeans for a co-ordinated military response if Russia invaded Ukraine again. On the key question of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, Zelensky said a ‘free economic zone’ was a potential option. He told journalists that as Ukraine was against withdrawal, US negotiators were looking to establish a demilitarised zone or a free economic zone. Any area that Ukrainian troops pulled out of would have to be policed by Ukraine, he stressed. A critical point is the offer of a referendum in the Russian speaking Donbas region in the East but this approach has already been rejected by Putin. But from the point of view of the Ukrainians, it could be argued that is a majority of the population on a ‘fair’ referendum want to go off and become part of Russia, then as a good democrats they should let them go. \u00a0The fact that Donald Trump would not agree to a referendum speaks volumes about the mindset of an American president who is supposedly upholding the values \u00a0of the free and democratic west and it is probably not going to happen. But it would be a way in which the Ukrainians could reconcile themselves to a loss of a region which the Russians have largely, but not completely, captured in the war so far. Meanwhile, on the more domestic front I have issues an invitation to Irish friends down the road to join me for some Christmas festivities in a day or so and so we shall look forward to that and then start to think about taking down all of the Christmas decorations at the end of next week and once New Year has been celebrated. There is one Christmas related task which sound a little calculative but which I still think needs to be done. As part of my ‘mechanisation’ of the Christmas card writing process, I have run off a master list of those to whom I have sent cards this year and I need to remind myself of those from whom I have not received a card in return, In the past, this has sometimes meant severe illness or even worse but I shall not know until I have engaged in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yesterday had been a somewhat unusual day. There were several domestic jobs such as washing to be attended to n the morning and then I popped down in the car to collect a copy of the newspaper (fortunately, not sol out) and some supplies of sweetener. When got home I needed to attack some bird droppings on the cat before they hardened and etched their way into the paintwork. Then the dryer started to give some messages that ‘something’ needed cleaning and I worked my through the four ‘cleanable’ bits which are the water repository, the large main filter and then two subsequent filters housed i the base of the machine. I managed to sort out the problem but I think i need to make this into a routine on about 1st of each calendar month so that the problem does not build up over time. My son and daughter-n-law were due to come around at 3.00pm in the afternoon and entertained myself until they came with a viewing of the classic film ‘Casablanca’ which is always watching for it is multi-layered, multi-layered towards the end and then ultimately quite exciting and poignant (although my family arrived half way through) Then we had various family matters to discuss but one of them involved the putting to sleep of my daughter-in-law’s mothers dog which was upsetting for all concerned. My family stayed with me until quite late and then I made some telephone calls as there was nothing to engage my attention for the rest of the evening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is too early in the day to judge the success of the talks at the Trump retreat into the future of the Ukraine and, even they have concluded, it is unlikely that a breakthrough will have been achieved. Trump is desperate to add Ukraine to the list of conflicts that he has boasted that he has resolved but the attitude of Putin and Russia is unbending in the extreme. This is the time of year when may programmes are taking a backward over the lives and careers of prominent figures in politics and the arts who are no longer with us. I knew that Robert Redford was tremendously respected as an actor but the tributes pid to him revealed that he was much admired and loved when he turned his creative energies to directing as well. the news has just emerged of the death of Brigitte Bardot who was ‘the’ pin-up girl of the early 1960’s but who devoted her latter years to campaigning for animal welfare (but also lent her weight to some rather nasty right wing politics as well)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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