Weather. War. Advertisements.

 We’ve got rather chilly sunshine today here. In Jamaica they’ve been experiencing the chaos of Hurricane Melissa.

The hurricane has now moved on to Cuba, where more than  735,000 people have been evacuated. Cuban president Miguel Diaz-Canel optimistically said on social media platform X:

“It will be a very difficult night for all of Cuba, but we will recover”. 

One elderly Cuban lady, Floraina Duaney, decided they needed help from on high, and prayed on to Our lady of Charity of El Cobre, patron saint of Cuba, asking that Melissa not cause damage:

“If you are the mistress of the waters, break up [Hurricane Melissa] so it doesn’t do us so much harm.”

0ne way of dealing with a problem, I suppose.

Government aid is usually made available for places suffering from flooding, which can be more damaging than hurricanes. I read something this morning to the effect that in the USA states with Republican governors receive considerably more than those with Democratic governors. If true, that sounds like a dangerous policy, tantamount to buying political support!

I keep finding examples of Palestinian art, beautiful colourful representations of a possibly idealised countryside.  

Here’s a picture I saw today by the Palestinian artist Kivara Ammar:

We keep pretending the war in Gaza is over but today brings this report: 

“The Israeli army killed 100 Palestinians, including at least 35 children, in the Gaza Strip since Tuesday evening, violating the ceasefire agreement, according to medics, Anadolu reports.

The Israeli strikes hit homes, tents sheltering displaced civilians, a vehicle, a shelter, and a hospital inside the so-called “yellow line,” medics told Anadolu.

The “yellow line” refers to the zone to which Israeli forces have withdrawn under the ceasefire agreement. It is a physical partition that runs through the Gaza Strip, dividing the Palestinian territory in half, and located inside Gaza, south of Gaza City and north of Khan Younis.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli army targeted a school-turned-shelter in an area in Beit Lahia, killing three civilians and injuring others.

The Israeli army shelled two houses in the Al-Nasr neighborhood and the Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City, in the north, leaving eight people dead.”

I feel we are fortunate not to be suffering bombing or extreme weather.

In the meantime, here’s something from Newsthump: 

'It drives us mad when TV screens are full of Reform MPs when they're less than 1% of the Parliamentary population' confirms public.’

And here’s a cartoon to accompany it.

And finally, here’s a Sempé cartoon about children reading, just to cheer us up:

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!