I’ve been rather out of touch with news over the last few days because of our very ropey wifi connection while we were off on our road trip to Cumbria. Nothing of great significance seems to have changed in the meantime.
I read that US special envoy Steve Witcoff and the US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee arrived in Israel for a visit yesterday as part of a renewed effort to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. They took a trip to Gaza to look at aid distribution sites. Here’s a post from Mr Huckabee on X:
“This morning I joined SEPeace Missions Steve Witkoff for a visit to Gaza to learn the truth about GHF aid sites. We received briefings from IDF and spoke to folks on the ground. GHF delivers more than one million meals a day, an incredible feat!”
Well, I suppose that if you learn the “truth” about the aid sites from the IDF you might well be impressed. It must be a bit like being impressed by the grades earned by someone who marks his own homework.
On the other hand there is the information in this article about the famine in Gaza.
Steve Witcoff, by the way, is a former real estate lawyer with no foreign policy or humanitarian background. Does knowledge of real estate law qualify a person for the post of special envoy? Or is the whole of the Israel/Palestine problem really just a huge real estate question?
According to Nancy Lindisfarne and Jonathan Neale, AnneBonnyPirate, writing in Jewish Voice for Labour, the powers that be are letting the destruction of Gaza happen as a way of letting us know that they are in control on everything. Here’s a link to their article on that matter.
They also claim that no real effort is being made to stop climate change, for the same reasons. And still we see reports of flood in China, warnings of floods in New York City and in New Jersey. Climate change doesn’t just affect other countries.
We are all at risk.
And now Storm Floris is forecast to bring unseasonably strong winds to the UK on Monday, the Met Office has said. The strongest winds are expected during the afternoon and night across Scotland, with gusts of up to 85mph possible on exposed coasts and hills. Throughout Monday and into the early hours of Tuesday we can expect heavy rain, and probably some transport disruption.
Storm Floris is the sixth named storm of the 2024-25 naming season, which runs from early September to late August, andStorm Éowyn in January was the most recent. Named storms are more frequent in late autumn and winter – but are “not uncommon” for summer, the Met Office said. Presumably we always had storms in my childhood - I just don’t remember them being named!
Anyway, I’m rather glad we went on our mini holiday this week rather than next.
Travelling around with the family, I have been subjected to a lot of KPop music. KPop is apparently the latest thing. Certainly our smallest grandchildren seem to know the words of all the songs. Come to that Granddaughters Number One and Number Two, who are old enough to have progressed to other music and other films also appear very familiar with it. Maybe watching such anime on Netflix is a way of escaping the misery of the world.
And here’s a photo of the women cycling through Bourg en Bresse in the Tour de France Femmes - just because photos os cyclists are always good.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment