A sense of drift in Washington

Most images of Donald Trump on social media and in the newspapers these days show him with his eyes closed as yet another interminable meeting takes place in the Oval Office. He will be 80 this year and it looks like he's getting tired, especially since so many things are going wrong for him. There is a real sense of drift at the moment because there is still no breakthrough in the war with Iran. We don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but Tehran and its injury-recovered supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, seem to be putiing their foot down and insisting on having all Iran's frozen assets released, totalling around $24 billion, before any deal is discussed about limiting their nuclear programme and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Does Trump fall asleep when the subject of Iran crops up in conversation? Trump has to be careful. If pictures keep on being published of him nodding off in the Oval Office, comparisons will increasaingly be made with his predecessor, Joe Biden, who invariably closed his eyes during the latter part of his term in office. Trump would not like to be compared with "poor old Joe".

JD Vance has a thing about Britain

The vice president of the United States doesn't have much of a role to play and it must be pretty frustrating which is why perhaps the current holder, JD Vance, spends so much time haranguing Britain over one thing or another. In his latest verbal outburst, he has blamed the appalling murder of the young Henry Nowak by a Sikh called Vickrum Digwa on mass immigration into the UK. If he believes that, ok, but keep his views to himself. What makes him think we are interested in what the US vice president believes, especially when it is simplistic nonsense. He has done this bfore, as has, of course, Elon Musk, who loves to take the side of the Reform leader Nigel Farage in rebuking Britain and the British government for its immigration policies. The more one hears the views of JD Vance, the more unlikely, it seems to me, that he will be a suitable candidate to succeed Donald Trump in 2028. In fact, if things continue to go badly for the Trump administration it is far more likely that the winner of the 2028 presidential election will be a Democrat. The Democratic party just has to get its act together and find a candidate who will wow America and the rest of the world. He or she hasn't emerged yet. PLEASE BUY AGENT REDRUTH, MY NEW SPY THRILLER. AMAZON, WATERSTONES, ROWANVALE BOOKS.

Putin sitting down to talk with Zelensky? Can't see it

In Vladimir Putin's eyes, his bete noir, Volodymyr Zelensky, has been a dead man ever since he failed to be toppled and then fought back against his invasion troops. But now Zelensky has written an open letter inviting Putin to hold face-to-face talks to find a settlement. Zelensky must have known that he would be rebuffed. Putin is not remotely in the frame of mind to talk real peace with anyone and certainly not at the same table with his arch opponent from Kyiv. It would play very badly back home unless of course Zelensky had given the impression beforehand that he was ready to do a deal that would deliver more Ukrainian land into Putin's hands. And he's not going to do that. So the Zelensky letter was fairly pointless except that it forced Putin to respond. Even then, I can't envisage Putin agreeing to be in the same room as Zelensky, let alone sit across from him at a table. This is why it's going to be so difficult for anyone else, whether Trump's special envoys or some selected European chief negotiator, to persuade Putin to make some concessions. He doesn't want a compromise deal, he wants to crush Ukraine, and in particular, its leader.

Ceasefires? What ceasefires?

The wordd 'ceasefire' has a certain connotation. It means, simply, that two warring sides agree to stop fighting and shooting and bombing and all goes quiet. It's a huge relief to the poor people whose lives have been ruined by warfare, and it's a big boost for the negotiators attempting to bring wars to an end. But not today. There is a ceasefire between the US and Iran but almost daily there are tit-for-tat strikes. Even worse ceasefire violations are going on in Lebanon and Gaza. Hezbollah continues to fire rockets into Israel and the Israeli Defence Forces retaliate with airstrikes, In Gaza, Hamas is active as ever and the IDF launches attacks on a pretty comprehensive fashion. People die. Donald Trump has been making light of the ceasefire breaches but the fact is, for the people, the civilians, in all three countries, and in the Gulf nations being targeted by Iran, life remains hellish. The word 'ceasefire' is meaningless for them. PLEASE BUY AGENT REDRUTH, MY NEW SPY THRILLER. AMAZON, ROWANVALE BOOKS, WATERSTONES.

Will Donald Trump really meet with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei?

Donald Trump, in his usual way, has thrown into the air an idea that he might meet up with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader to discuss and sign an agreement. Could this ever happen? It's difficult to imagine the two men meeting and shaking hands. Not after the destruction US bombs and missiles have done to Iran, not after the bombing of Iran's three main nuclear sites, and particularly not after Mojtaba Khamenei was grievously wounded when bombs killed his father, the then suprme leader, on day one of the US/Israeli attacks on Iran that began on February 28. However, if Trump has put forward the idea, I guess it's just possible the matter has been raised but I would have thought it was wishful thinking that the supreme leader would agree to sit down with the US president. And where would such a meeting take place? Not in Washington, that's for sure. And not in Tehran. It would have to be somewhere like Qatar or possibly Pakistan. But first of all, we have to have an agreement, and that seems far away at the moment, with bombs and drones falling most days. The Strait of Hormuz is not totally static, a few ships have been going through on the Omani side of the chokepoint with US warships coordinating their safe passage. But we are only talking about a dozen or so. All the rest are still stuck out in the Gulf of Oman or Gulf or Arabia. The crews must be sick to death of their situation. If there is going to be a deal to sign and a meeting between Trump and Khamenei, the sooner the better.

Vladimir Putin is the most dangerous leader in the world

A massive strike on Kyiv and other cities, killing civilians, has underlined how desperate and dangerous Vladimir Putin is. He's not getting what he wants out of his "special operation "in Ukraine, so for a long time now he has just been hitting out without any sort of strategy. It's just blind hatred and a determination to kill and destroy as much as possible. This makes him the most dangerous leader on the planet. He is bitter and vengeful and angry and he is never going to do a peace deal with the Kyiv government. Neither the US nor Europe has a chance of ending this war. Only Putin can end it and he can't bear to conmtemplate finding any settlement with a country he would prefer to wipe off the face of the earth. This dangerous man could be leader of Russia for another two decades. The war in Ukraine could last that long, too, in some form or other. There will never be perfect peace. Not while Putin is the leader. What he doesn't seem to realise is that as he continues attacking Ukraine he is not actually getting any nearer his dream of subjugating his neighbour. He will never achieve that and in the meantime he is doing immense damage to his own country and to his own people. Trump has failed to stop him and whoever succeeds Trump will also fail. It's a total tragedy for Ukraine.

Trump says "just sit back and relax"

Donald Trump is in a very relaxed mood and wants all Americans to stop worrying about the war against Iran. In a Truth Social post he advised everyone "just sit back and relax". It's difficult for most families to do that because the war has caused the cost of living to rocket upwards and most of them can't afford to fill up their cars with petrol (gas, for the Americans). But what Trump I guess is trying to do is calm the waters as the negotiations continue to end the war although there is little sign a deal is coming any day soon. In fact, the longer it all goes on, the more tetchy both side become and, sure enough, they start firing at each other. This is the way with ceasefires. Look what's happening in southern Lebanon where there is supposed to be a ceasefire and also in Gaza where another ceasefire is supposed to be running. With Iran, it's all called self-defense attacks. The US thinks Iran is about to loose off a missile or drone and slams a few bombs into the launch sites. Then the Islamic Rebolutionary Guard Corps fires off a missile and drone towards US bases in Kuwait by way of retaliation. This has happened two or three times since the ceasefire. And I have no doubt there will be more such incidents until a peace deal is signed. Will it actually ever happen? Right now, it seems unlikely. But Trump says sit and relax, so maybe he is convinced there will be a settlement.