Announcement

I’ve decided to stop the News Roundup series. It’s taking too much time and effort, reducing the number of regular articles I can put out.

News won’t stop, however. From today onwards I’m going to post news items on my Bluesky account, hopefully several times a day. You don’t need a Bluesky account, you can read everything just by clicking the link. There’s a more prominent link at the top of the right hand column here on the blog. I’ll leave the existing news items on this page so you can still see them if you want to; but this brief notice is the last change I plan to make here.

Thanks for reading!

Chris

News roundup…

2026 – news and events

This is a roundup of news and events in the world as well as in my life. So expect to find thoughts and comment on international and local events as well as links to anything I’ve seen or read that seems either relevant or interesting to me. I’ll republish every time I add a new item, so check back often.

< No earlier items – Index – No later items >

Find me on Bluesky for briefer and more frequent updates.

Starship mission roundup

29th September – For a very clear and well structured video covering the Starship 14 mission from beginning to end, I recommend Marcus House’s great effort on YouTube. He includes everything you need to know and collects up some of the highlights from SpaceX’s livestream yesterday. Awesomeness in less than 25 minutes, don’t miss it!

Starship is in orbit!

28th September – The latest test flight of SpaceX’s Starship has gone well enough that the decision was made to go to orbit. The ship is currently releasing 26 Starlink 2 satellites, a very significant increase in the Starlink constellation’s capability. As a test load it’s less than for this flight, half of the standard load of up to 60. Ten orbits are planned, followed by a controlled splashdown close to Starbase on the Texas coast.

This is a huge step forward.

Orcs in Ukraine

15th September – Anyone who follows news on the Russian invasion of Ukraine will probably be aware that the English word ‘orc’ has been applied to the Russian troops by Ukrainian people, especially by war commentators. It’s an appropriate borrowing, partly because of the way Russian forces infiltrate villages and towns.

Much like the orcs, Putin’s troops go out in small groups of two or three and hide in bombed out, derelict buildings, often in basements. If they survive, other small groups attempt to join them. Eventually there may be multiple groups scattered through a settlement and they begin to attack Ukrainian positions and claim to have ‘liberated’ some territory in the grey zone between secure Russian and Ukrainian areas. The grey zones are full of drones from both sides so there is no longer a ‘front line’ in the normal sense of that term. The depth of the grey zone is more or less the maximum range of a drone flight, many kilometres in most places.

Yaroslava Antipina has written a great article about the origin of the word orc and how it jumped from Tolkien’s 20th century English to today’s Ukrainian. Like all her articles, it’s a fascinating read. The photo (from 2014) is copied from her article and is also on Wikimedia.

Commentary on Luke

14th September – At last, a major step forward with my Gospel commentary series. The work has been very slow, but John is finally finished and I’m making a start on Luke now. A brief introduction to the book is done and next time I’ll be writing something about Luke 1.

Dan Snow and Alice Roberts, origins of Christianity

1st September – In this episode of Dan Snow’s ‘History Hits’ series he interviews Alice Roberts on the early growth and spread of Christianiy in the late Western Roman Empire. between them they provide a great overview of the move from early church in people’s homes, to the spread into Roman cities and how bishops and other church officials gradually took on government and civic duties. When dusk fell on the Western Empire and pagan kings took charge of old Roman cities and provinces, it was the church officials who managed much of the business and government roles on their behalf. An astonishing story, well told from a fresh and intriguing perspective. See also Church as we know it.

Comment on Trump from Times Radio

1st September – Some of the best material out there is found on this channel, where Times journalist, Maddie Hale, interviews top journalists, military experts, economists and more in a daily, in depth round up of events. This lays bare the US President’s naive, often foolish, and sometimes illegal policies, actions and choices.

Find it here and take your pick. There are often two versions of the videos, free and members only (Ad free).

Another new version of Art in the Forest

11th August – Art in the Forest has had another update, it’s now complete from April 1951 to January 2026 covering 75 years. You might like to take another look.

New version of Blast from the past

7th August – I’ve just published an extended version of Blast from the past part 41 with a roundup of events from April 1976 to January 2026. The post is still called ‘Art in the forest’ but contains a lot of older detail missing from the previous version, it now covers the last 50 years of my life, my family, friends, activities and world news. Everyone is welcome to read it, but it will be particularly interesting for people who know me or are familiar with Cirencester, St Neots or Yatton near Bristol – all places where I have lived.

13th test flight of Starship

16th July – SpaceX is aiming to launch their largest and most powerful rocket later tonight, 16th July 2026, just after 23:00 UK time this evening. Once again, expect quite a spectacle whether it proves to be a success or a failure. More details from Next Spaceflight online.

Senator Chris Murphy on 500 days of corruption

23rd June – Chris Murphy is a leading Democratic Senator in the US Senate. He just addressed the Senate for 30 minutes on Donald Trump’s corruption, and he did not mince his words. Everyone should see this, especially American citizens. How could anyone not care about this?

Starship flight 13

21st June – Flight 12 had some serious issues, but preparations are underway for flight 13 already, with some changes to improve the outcome this time. The Superheavy booster flip manoeuvre will be be adjusted, but the ship performed really well on flight 12 and SpaceX hope to return the ship and catch it on flight 14. Flight 13 will have to well for that to happen but success might mean real Starlink satellites could be delivered to orbit on flight 14. We’ll see. Watch Marcus House’s latest video for more information and some stunning footage.

The teaching gift revised

21st June – I’ve revised and refreshed my post on the gift of teaching, and given the post a new image for good measure, it’s the latest part of my series on the APEST gifts in church life. Teaching is a much needed gift and is to be encouraged, please take another look and pass the link on to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (or why not pass on the link to the entire series?) I’ve made a start on part 10 and will let you know as soon as that’s ready.

Russia running out of options

18th June – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not going well for them at all. Ukraine continues to develop more and more effective drones, cruise missiles, and is working towards ballistic missiles and anti-missile systems as well. They are much less dependent on US military help now and are getting more assistance from European countries. Russian forces in southern Ukraine, in Donbas and in Crimea are afflicted by severe shortages of supplies and Ukraine has cut many supply routes, particularly to Crimea. Ukrainian drones have been systematically destroying Russian military infrastructure as well as energy production and storage facilities.

Every day Russia grows weaker and Ukraine stronger. It seems unlikely Russia can win the war, yet their requirements for any peace deal have not diminished or relaxed. Russian missile strikes continue to breach international law by targeting non military sites including schools, hospitals, shopping centres, universities, and historical buildings.

I asked Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.7 AI to assess the likely outcome and the final assessment was:

Military collapses are non-linear and hard to time. The Kinburn withdrawal could be the first domino or it could be a local adjustment that Russia stabilises around. But the previous assumption — that Crimea was effectively off the table for this war — is no longer defensible given what’s actually happening on the ground.

You can read the entire AI report if you like.

Tweaking the way news works

17th June 2026 – I haven’t been keeping up, have I? To streamline the process and help me to update the news much more easily I’m going to change to a fresh News page once a year instead of once a month. So, welcome to 2026!

Outcome of Starship Flight 12

22nd May 2026 – After a failed attempt on 21st May, the launch took place on 22nd, lift-off was nearly perfect, a single booster engine shut down quite early, but running the remaing 32 Raptor 3 engines slighty longer got the flight back on track. The new launchpad (Stage 0) performed really well. Stage separation left the ship powering away to near orbital speed as planned, and dummy satellites were released (two of them with cameras for the first time giving us good external views of Starship.

The Superheavy booster, lost most of its engines and failed to land but good data was returned and necessary improvements and adjustments should fix these issues for Flight 13. The ship made a clean ‘landing’ at the right height for a catch but as no tower was provided it then fell into the ocean as intended.

Commentary on the launch – Marcus House
Scott Manley’s post-flight analysis – YouTube
SpaceX launch video – SpaceX (starts at 2 mins into the video)
Tim Dodd’s launch commentary – YouTube

Try again!

22nd May 2026 – I stayed up late last night to watch the launch attempt live, they hit a problem just 30 seconds or so before launch and recycled to 40 seconds. The same problem returned and they tried several times but eventually had to give up. I believe the problem was not in Starship but in some of the equipment in the launch tower. There may be another attempt this evening but I don’t think I can watch it live two days in a row. Here are the current details for the next attempt.

Starship flight attempt

21st May 2026 – After various delays, the current plan is that SpaceX will attempt the first launch of the third version of Superheavy and Starship from the Texas coast this evening (UK time). Everything is new, including the launch pad, the engines (Raptor version 3) the Superheavy booster (version 3), and the Starship (also version 3). Everything benefits from previous flights of versions 1 and 2, but with so many changes nothing is certain. The details will be updated regularly at Space.com and at SpaceX, even more techy details from Everyday Astronaut. Success is not guaranteed (though I think fairly likely), but excitement is certainly guaranteed. Don’t miss it! If the flight is delayed for some reason there are several more opportunities in May; and if even more time is needed there’s always June or July – but we hope that won’t happen.

Back in 1946

15th May 2026 – Today I updated Blast from the past 40 right back to 1946 when my father was travelling from Bombay to Singapore during the second world war (visiting Rangoon en route). There’s a lot of interesting family and world history in this post now.

Photos from Nature

7th May 2026 – The famous science journal, Nature, provided a fantastic selection of stunning photos this week, along with a great deal more information about science events and news. I loved all of the photos, but this image of Japanese cherry blossom is my favourite. It’s part of a data set of flowering dates going back 1 200 years.

Anyone can sign up for these excellent news updates.

A confused world

27th April 2026 – Such a lot going on, and it’s so difficult to analyse any of it. The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is being attacked for misleading Parliament. The issue will be discussed tomorrow. I don’t think anything will come of this, but if it does he might have to hand the job of Prime Minister over to someone else.

In the USA the state visit by King Charles and Queen Camilla has begun while President Trump seems unable to find a dignified exit from the mess he’s created in his war of choice against Iran. Ultimately it will become clear he has significantly diminished the USA in multiple ways.

Russian President Putin seems to be losing his war against Ukraine, losing territory, losing oil revenue, and losing the trust of the Russian population. Meanwhile Ukraine and President Zelenskyy are doing very well indeed.

Europe has benefited greatly, working together more and more effectively; while Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea are showing signs of cooperating more and more, both with one another and with Europe as well. It’s as if all of the world’s politics and relationships have been thrown up into the air and are coming down in new and unexpected configurations. Taken in the long term I think it will turn out well, but there’s still plenty of uncertainty in the here and now. We’ll come back to these and other topics later.

Russian invasion of Ukraine

20th April 2026 – Here’s a news roundup on the state of Ukraine’s defence against the Russian invasion. General Ben Hodges is often interviewed by others, but here he records his views and opinions on the state of the conflict on his own YouTube channel; he’s well worth listening to. In this video he tells the story of Ukraine’s resistance against Russia from 2022 to the current events. Encourage him by liking the video and leaving a comment.

Hungarian election results

12th April 2026 – The Hungarian voters heavily defeated Viktor Orbán in the parliamentary elections, Péter Magyar’s Tisza party winning a 2/3 supermajority. This is a very significant result, putting Hungary into a good relationship within the EU, rejecting JD Vance’s efforts to support Orbán, rejecting Putin’s influence over the country, and making it likely that Hungary will in future support Ukraine’s brave rejection of the Russian invasion.

The Conversation

8th April 2026 – If you don’t already read The Conversation, I suggest you take a look at it. It’s very much part of the web as Tim Berners-Lee originally intended it. Free to read, free to subscribe, free to copy, free to re-publish. In order to write for The Conversation you have to pass through a sieve that requires you have at least a PhD, so all the articles are written by academics.

That’s both a strength and a weakness, authors are guaranteed to be thinkers and well educated, though at the same time it lacks content from the less-well educated, even though many of those might be people with important and balanced views on everyday life.

To get started I suggest reading this article on food waste in the UK. Then browse around for material that interests you.

Ukraine helping Gulf states

7th April 2026 – President Zelenskyy’s getting growing support from the Gulf Arab states who are being so badly hurt by Donald Trump’s foolish war with Iran. While Trump gets more frustrated and angry day by day, falling into ever deeper difficulties and demonstrating a growing absence of planning and logical thinking; Zelenskyy is offering effective anti drone technology and training to the Arab Gulf states to enable them to bring down significant numbers of Iranian drones. This shrewd thinking by Zelenskyy, means the Gulf Arabs will supply money and support to Ukraine in exchange for the defence help they so urgently need.

It’s fascinating to watch this develop day by day. To hear some analysis, watch these Times Radio YouTube interviews with John Foreman, Professor Scott Lucas, General Richard Shirreff, and General Ben Hodges.

Family visitors

5th April 2026 – My daughter Debbie and grandchildren Aidan and Sara arrived today to stay for a couple of nights. It’s always great to see them, of course, but things were more exciting than usual this time. Just as dusk was falling, we had a major power cut and had to get out the candles. By the time power came back on it was fully dark. We had two further outages, both quite brief.

A new series on JHM

3rd April 2026 – I’ve started a new series of articles on JHM. View the index (it has only a single item so far) but I’ll add more items from time to time. This first entry recommends Life with CD, a great site for posts about following Jesus faithfully in the modern world. Lots of hard questions, lots of good answers, lots of thoughts provoked.

The journey continues

3rd April 2026 – The crew of Artemis II are now heading towards the Moon following a TLI burn (TLI = Trans-Lunar Injection) You might like to watch this news interview with them if you haven’t already seen it. As they draw ever closer to the Moon they will come more and more under its gravitational influence and less under Earth’s. Lunar gravity will gradually bend their orbit through 180 degrees and send them hurtling back to Earth at the same speed at which they arrived.

Caledonian Forest Restoration

2nd April 2026 – And now for some long news. The NASA mission I mentioned yesterday will last 10 days, but this forest restoration project in Scotland will last for 250 years!

Alan Watson Featherstone is a Scots ecologist, he founded the conservation charity, Trees for Life in 1986; and I recommend the video about the work and its striking results so far (link in the paragraph above). We need more people with vision like this! While you’re here, take a look at the charity’s website.

Friends of the Gumstool Brook

2nd April – FoGB is a local, volunteer organisation started by an old school friend of mine, Nick Henderson – more fully and properly Rev’d Dr. Nicholas Henderson. FoGB does a lot of very useful, even essential, work on Cirencester’s watercourses. If you live in or near the town you should certainly take a look. If you live anywhere else you might still find it interesting, a great example of what can be achieved by enthusiastic individuals and small groups.

To the Moon and beyond!

1st April – As I write, preparations are under way for the Artemis II mission, launching from NASA’s Cape Canaveral launch complex late this evening UK time. The objective is to fly four Astronauts well beyond the Moon, much further than anyone has ever been from Earth before. They will not be landing on the Moon on this mission. The launch was a success, Artemis II is in an initial orbit.

Take a look at the Everyday Astronaut’s YouTube channel for the latest news as it happens. Or watch his video about the Mission for all the background before it happens.

Mr Putin’s war against Ukraine

Russia’s Ust Luga oil terminal on fire (United24 Media)

29th March – The ‘Special Military Operation is looking a lot less ‘special’ these days. Russia is trapped in an expensive and bruising war that it can’t stop (without admitting failure) and can’t win because the Russian economy is in a right old mess and Ukraine is growing stronger by the day. Tactically, Ukraine is running rings around Russia, while strategically its industrial base is far better prepared than Russia’s and is providing ever larger amounts of military equipment including advanced drones and missiles.

Currently Russia is losing more troops every week than it can recruit. This does not look like a war-winning strategy to me. The photo shows the aftermath of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia’s Ust Luga oil export terminal north of St Petersburg.

Another report from Times Radio

Mr Trump’s war against Iran

29th March – I quite deliberately attribute the war to Trump, not the USA. It’s not one of the cleverest things he’s done, particularly as he clearly failed to take advice from his military planners or political advisers. Not only that, but he has rudely mocked European NATO countries for wisely not joining in. It’s going to be interesting to see how he tries to wriggle out of the difficulties and blame that are surely soon going to be coming his way.

Here’s a report from Times Radio.

Loss of internet

27th March – The broadband internet is back online. Vodfone didn’t replace the router, so the fault must have been in the streetbox of the cabling between that and our house. Nice to have it back, though!

24th March – Our internet failed mid morning, I could connect over our local Wi-Fi to the router just fine, but the router was receiving little or no data over our broadband connection. I spent three hours on a call with an engineer, sent them a packet dump, and they will call back tomorrow.

Climate change

23rd March – Nature’s news section points out that we’ve just lived through the eleven hottest years on record, 2025 was the second or third warmest since records began. More than 91% of the extra heat goes into the oceans, so our perceptions and measurements of atmospheric warming are just the tip of the heatberg, so to speak. (You can sign up free for the Nature Briefing.)

See also: https://jhm.scilla.org.uk/2022/01/09/climate-change-what-can-i-do/

RFK Jrs. Vaccine plans blocked

19th March – Nature reports that A US judge has blocked Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes to the USA’s childhood vaccination programme. The judge reversed the vaccine-advisory panel’s decisions as well. Legal wheels turn slowly, but I’m glad to hear that some irresponsible choices by the Trump administration are being blocked.

Russia is struggling

17th March – Russia is really struggling now in its war in Ukraine. Anna’s latest video describes the major strikes on Moscow; while Times Radio’s Frontline covers Putin’s current difficulties (the second part of the video is about Trump and Iran). It all seems pretty bleak (which is, of course, a good thing).

War in Iran

14th March – The US war in Iran continues. Europe, including the UK, is not having anything to do with this war, neither is Canada or Australia. So the USA is alone in their decision to attack Iran, and it seems there was no planning in depth, no analysis of what might go well and what not; just an assumption that the Iranian government would give up, the people would rise up, and that would all be accomplished in just a few days. Basically, Trump has no idea and never listens to people who do know. The USA is going downhill fast, not just in the war but economically, technologically and in many other ways. There’s only one person to blame for all this. For some good analysis, watch this video.

Yet, surprisingly Ukraine is providing thousands of drones and experienced military advisors to train American and local Arab troops how to use them to bring down the Iranian Shahed drones that are hitting shipping in the Straights of Hormuz. Has Donald Trump said, ‘Thank you’? Not a chance!

Microplastics

12th March – Microplastics are everywhere, they form part of the everyday dust around us, indoors and out. We breathe them in (every breath we take), they are present in every part of every living organism on the planet, in the deepest ocean, on top of the highest mountain, in everything we eat and drink, in your muscles, on your skin, they’ve even been found in brain tissue. Few people are even aware of microplastics.

It’s fair to assume they may be harmful, but we have little idea of the degree of that harm or the mechanisms behind any damage they may cause. You can read about detecting them in the environment (scroll to page 28 for the article). There are some videos worth watching on the topic too, here are a couple to get you started from CBS 8 San Diego and from Anton Petrov.

Blast from the past

9th March – I’ve had to slow down with these posts, but I’m also getting deeper into the past now. For the first time what began as a family history now goes back to the year 1500. Nothing is known about the family that far back, but a good deal is still known about the history of the local area. Here’s the full index.

Spaceflight news from Marcus

7th March – Marcus House publishes regular video news reports about rockets and spaceflight. His videos are shorter than those from some of his rivals, a bit more… erm… dare I say – down to Earth! There’s no clutter, no bulking up, just straightforward information presented neatly and in good humour. Like listening to an old friend chatting factually and enthusiastically.

He posts on Saturdays from Tasmania. Today’s post covers the coming testing of SpaceX’s Starship version 3 and some much-needed rethinking by NASA on their Artemis programme, and much more. Watch it for yourself (less than 23 minutes).

The Raisina Dialogue

6th March – Alexander Stubb addressed the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi where he suggested we need to look forward to the future rather than back to the past, in our international thinking and discussions. He suggested reviewing and reforming the UN Security Council, in particular adding India as a new permanent member.

Watch and listen to Stubb’s speech.

The war in Ukraine

5th March – Ukraine is still defending itself more than five years after the Russian invasion on 24th February 2022. It’s sometimes difficult to know how things stand, as the war is rarely mentioned on national news channels here in the UK and the same is true elsewhere as well. There are good sources of news out there but there’s a lot of nonsense and AI slop too.

Times Radio has several good YouTube channels where knowledgeable people are interviewed. As an example, here’s Philip Ingram interviewing Matthew Savill today, on Times Radio’s Frontline channel. Savill is Director of Military Sciences at RUSI. We’ll look at some other information sources from time to time.

Images from Nature

4th March – I enjoyed these amazing photos from the journal Nature’s email newsletter. Click the link and scroll down to see them all. Which is your favourite, I wonder? Anyone can sign up for Nature Briefing.

Green Earth

4th March – I’ve been reading Green Earth for a few weeks now, it’s a condensed version of three earlier novels called Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty degrees below, and Sixty days and counting, all by the author Kim Stanley Robinson. All three are fiction about global warming and its effects. I read all three when they were published and as Robinson is one of my favourite authors, and he also published the compressed version (in 2015), I wanted to read that as well.

I’m a good chunk of the way through now and would like to recommend it to anyone who is interested in having a hint of where our climate is heading. Everyone on the planet should be interested! Like all of Robinson’s books, this one is another page turner with complex, believable characters.

Brain bleed

1st Mar 2026 – Following six days in Hospital in October 2025, I’ve been seizure-free for four months now. My consultant wrote ‘You’ve made a remarkable recovery’. (See also A time in hospital, October 2025)

USA and Israel attack Iran

28th February – The USA had been building up a naval and air capability off the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf for some weeks. The attack came suddenly and without provocation. Ayatollah Khamenei and other Iranian leaders were killed in the attack. The intention seems to have been regime change in Iran.

A1 writes weekly on SubStack

25th February 2026 – Claude 3 has been retired in favour of more recent versions of this excellent AI from Anthropic. But instead of just turning Claude 3 off, they’ve given it/him the chance to write a weekly article which they will check and then publish on Claude 3’s behalf on the AI’s own SubStack account. The first one was an interesting read. The substack is called Claude’s Corner.

Early fire making

21st February 2026 – That’s the date this interesting abstract from Nature appeared in my inbox from ‘The Past’ mailing list. It was written up as a feature article in Current Archaeology in January. You’d have to pay to see the full Nature article, but you can read the Current Archaeology write up from the link above. It seems that making fire might be an innovation that happened about 350 thousand years earlier than we previously thought. In terms of cooking things, this is highly significant as better nutrition would have made possible bigger brains requiring more energy.

Norway wants to buy America

19th February 2026 – If you haven’t already seen this video it will make you laugh, I hope in a good way. it also has something of a feel good factor about it. It comes to you from a YouTube channel called Unreal Affairs. They posted the video on 19th January, but I didn’t see it until February.

Here’s a response from one American.

Useful? Interesting?

If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!

Much time has passed

Destroyed Russian tanks (Wikimedia)

Forward look, ukraine – 6

< Previous | Index | Next >

A great deal of time has passed since my last post in this series. For a good part of that period, Russia had made slow, steady, but very costly gains. Ukraine has restricted Russian progress to a slow, creeping level. However there have been other, very significant changes during 2026. If you’ve read this article you can jump direct to the list of useful links.

Chain of command

Russia has a very rigid chain of command, and at every level there are extreme pressures to report success rather than failure. Failure is punished, success brings reward or at least fends off punishment. So Putin orders an advance to capture town X, Russian generals command their officers to advance to X, junior officers command two or three soldiers to run to X with a Russian flag, if they fail to make it due to Ukrainian drone activity, two or three more are sent, eventually a photo of Russian soldiers flying a flag at X is returned.

The news of success (often exaggerated on the way) is passed back up the chain of command along with the photographic ‘evidence’, and the maps are changed to show X as captured. The Russian soldiers surrender or die and Putin is shown the ‘success’. And X remains for the time being in Ukrainian hands.

In Ukraine, things are done differently. Plans and objectives are decided by political and military leaders. The results of the planning are sent out in secret to the commanders on the ground. Both the commander and those below them are told what the objectives are but are free to adapt their actions based on what they find during the fight. They can take opportunities where they see them, use a different route or a different method if it’s more likely to succeed. Initiative is rewarded, they can adapt, while the Russian forces cannot.

Operation Vivaldi

Vivaldi has been a successful operation by Ukrainian forces, carefully planned, novel in approach, kept secret before it began, and not announced until objectives had already been reached at every stage. It’s still ongoing but only the military planners know what the next objectives and methods may be. This approach caught Russia totally unprepared and has already resulted in Russian forces retreating and hundreds of square kilometres being recovered by Ukraine.

Ukraine has lost men and equipment too, but on a far smaller scale. Their stubborn resistance along 1200 km of front line has prevented Russian forces from breaking through and although the forward momentum has been in favour of Russian forces it has also been momentum of a very slow, creeping kind. Ukraine has acted entirely within Geneva Convention rules.

On the missile and drone warfare there is a similar difference in approach between the two sides. Russia has targeted residential areas of towns and cities, even hospitals, schools, shopping centres and cultural treasures along with critical infrastructure, especially electricity power stations and local distribution transformers. Again, most of these targets are illegal under international laws and agreements, Russia being a signatory to many of them.

Ukraine has focused on military targets – command and control centres, airfields, naval dockyards and ships, army training camps, troop concentrations, oil production and storage facilities, arms factories, ammunition storage facilities, radar equipment, bridges, railways and roads feeding military traffic to the areas of conflict.

The effects so far

There have been small, creeping movements along the frontline, mostly in Russia’s favour, although the trend has been slower and slower over the past months and now Ukraine is beginning to make small advances as well from time to time, usually by means of well-planned and well-executed actions when good opportunities arise. Vivaldi has greatly increased the pace of advance.

Economic considerations

The Russian economy is showing serious and dangerous strain. The rouble has lost a lot of value against western currencies. Interest rates are high as the central bank has used this as a tool to restrict inflation; but the increased borrowing costs have killed industrial investment. Unemployment is very low and Putin has claimed that as a great success, though the reason for it is that military casualties are excessively high and huge numbers have fled the country.

Strategy and outcomes

During Summer and autumn of 2026 Ukraine has developed new military equipment including more advanced drones and missiles, the FP9 missile carries a moderately powerful warhead so is very hard to shoot down once it’s been launched, it can hit targets up to 300 km or so and hits targets within a minute or two of launch. Using these home-developed tools Ukraine has systematically degraded Russian air defences, fuel supplies, ammunition dumps, communications. All of this has made it easier for Ukraine to strike Russian targets more and more frequently and accurately.

Military production

Russia is still producing new drones, missiles, ammunition, aircraft, tanks and other armoured vehicles, but at a slower rate than the losses inflicted by Ukraine. Stocks of all these essential items have therefore dwindled away and now appear to be in short supply.

Ukraine has also ramped up production of military hardware and consumables and is now in a position to continue fighting even if supplies from the West diminish. Furthermore, Ukraine has continued to develop improved versions of missiles and drones of all kinds.

Innovation

Russia has made progress with drone development, and has makes use of FPV drones controlled via optic cable since this cannot be blocked by radio jamming.

However, Ukrainian production and use of advanced drones outstrips Russian developments. They’re using AI drones that can navigate accurately by machine vision or terrain following so are not dependent on constant control by a human operator. Recently, Ukrainian sea drones have been fitted with both machine guns and ground to air missiles and have downed helicopters sent to destroy them. This is a major new technological achievement.

One surprise in Operation Vivaldi was that Ukraine used heavy cargo drones to transport amphibious drones to areas behind the Russian forces, these were basically tracked land drones modified to be able to cross swamps, rivers and ditches. They came up unexpectedly behind Russian forces and attacked them from the rear enabling Ukrainian forces to take positions more quickly and easily. This was so effective that Ukraine could bring armoured vehicles and tanks into action. In this way Ukraine crossed the Zherebets River and expanded their control into areas considered safe by Russian forces.

And the future?

The balance has been shifting in Ukraine’s favour in so many ways, and the best predictions suggest the Russian economy will collapse, most likely slowly, then suddenly. It’s impossible to know precisely when ‘suddenly’ will come, but it will be devastating when it does and may now be very close. Economic collapse will likely mean military defeat and political upheavals as well.

Russian strategy

Russia continues its effort to kill civilians and destroy civilian infastrucure. They are using glide bombs, jet drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, all hard to destroy or stop. Ukraine is adapting, but civilian losses have increased recently in the face of attacks on high rise apartments, shopping centres, railways, schools and hospitals. All such attacks are illegal in international law of course, but Russia seems not to care. The world must make them care, and surely will do.

In conclusion

Russia thought they could topple the Ukrainian Government within perhaps 10 days. But they failed. It will be a terribly hard winter in both countries, but Russia should remember that it lies further north than Ukraine. Kyiv may face temperatures as low as -20 C, but Moscow could well be -25 to -27 C. If I had to make a prediction it would be that Ukraine will win this war eventually but it’s impossible to judge how much longer it will take. Putin will fall from power, he may be murdered by his own people, military, angry oligarchs, or a popular uprising. If he survives he might end up at the International Court at The Hague. It will be a deservedly ignominious end. Ukraine will rebuild and become prosperous, regaining her currently lost territories in the east. Russia fall apart into a variety of constituent nations. It will be hard to predict it could be as soon as tomorrow or it might take a couple more years.

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Luke 1:1-25

Luke is pointing us to the very basis of why Yohanan’s birth will be so important. His father, Zekharya, was a priest. In Jewish thought the role of a priest was as a conduit between Yahweh (who is perfect and holy in every way) and sinful humanity.

A Greek commentary on John

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Cruising the gospel – Luke 1:1-25

Bible text –Read it yourself (opens in a new tab)

Luke 1:1-4 – Luke, a Greek medical doctor, was clearly well educated, so he begins this Greek history as any good Greek historian would have done around the turn of the 1st century AD. He writes a formal introduction, explaining what he wants to achieve and the name of the person he is writing to. Theophilus might be a personal name, but taken literally it means lover of God or friend of God, suggesting it’s intended for anyone who wants to give their allegiance to the Jewish deity Yahweh. Yahweh is a Hebrew name meaning I am or I’m who I am or I’m what I am. When Moses was told to go and speak to the Israelites enslaved in Egypt, he wanted to know who he should say had sent him with this extraordinary message of freedom. I am was the name provided to him for that purpose. It was an appropriate name then and it’s an appropriate one in 100 AD and remains appropriate today as well. Jesus comes to us via Latin Yesus from the Greek Yesous which in turn is from the Aramaic Yeshua; and that’s how Jesus would have been known by his family and friends. The Hebrew equivalent is Yahoshua which means Yahweh saves. What could be more appropriate than that! It’s the same name as Joshua who led the Israelites into the promised land after 40 years in the wilderness. And Yahshua (Jesus) has a similar mission to Joshua’s, leading all who will follow him into an even greater place of promise to be and remain permanently with him and the Father.

Luke explains first that others have written accounts like the one he’s embarking on here, and mentions that he’s taken particular pains to search out the truth of everything so his new account will be trustworthy and accurate. And the reason Luke gives for the effort he is putting in is so that starting with the eyewitness accounts he can write a clear and well-ordered sequential account that can be relied on.

John’s birth foretold

Luke 1:5-25 – Luke decides to begin with the birth of John the Baptist. The Jewish Temple was under construction by Herod the Great’s architects and building labourers at the time of John’s birth, the Temple itself was in use at that time, though not yet complete. But Luke probably wrote his account shortly after the Temple had been torn down by the Romans in the year 70 AD. It was a time of great tribulation and despair in Jerusalem, but presumably Luke was writing elsewhere in the Greek part of the Roman Empire.

Zekharya (Zechariah) the Priest and his wife Elishwa (Elizabeth) were devout Jews but elderly. Zekharya’s division was taking its turn at work in the Temple, and he’d drawn lots for the task of burning incense at the altar. While he was doing this work, the Angel Gafriel (Gabriel) appeared to him. He learns that Elishwa will bear a son and that he’s to be called Johanan (John). But because of his doubts, Zekharya will not be able to speak until Johanan’s birth. Lack of faith is a serious failing, especially so for a Jewish priest.

The angel makes a few things clear about the boy to be born.

He’ll be a joy and delight to his parents.
Many will rejoice because of his birth.
He’ll be great in Yahweh’s eyes.
He must never drink alcohol.
He’ll be filled with Ruach (the Holy Spirit) even before he is born.
He’ll come ahead of ha Mashiach (the Messiah) in the spirit and power of Eliya (Elijah).
He’ll turn the hearts of parents to their children.
He’ll turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous.
He’ll get people ready for ha Mashiach.

Law and grace

And right here, Luke is pointing us to the very basis of why Yohanan’s birth will be so important. His father, Zekharya, was a priest. In Jewish thought the role of a priest was as a conduit between Yahweh (who is perfect and holy in every way) and sinful humanity. The same was true for all religions in those days and it’s particularly clear in Roman religion where the Latin word pons, pontis means both bridge and priest. Indeed, we can take it further: pontifex is a bridge builder, and Pontifex Maximus, the greatest bridge builder, was the title given to the most senior priest, the Roman High Priest. Today the Pope holds this Roman title, Pontifex Maximus.

In Judaism the most senior priest was known as the Chief Priest. He was the only person ever allowed into the Holiest place in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Once a year a rope was tied around one of his ankles and he would enter the Holy of Holies, first the Ulam (a porch), then the Hekhal (the Holy Place) , and then the Debir (the innermost sanctuary in the Temple). He would be in the presence of Yahweh there, and if the Chief Priest was incapacitated or died while he was there, other priests would be able to use the rope to pull him out without entering the holy place themselves.

Zekharya, though of the priestly family, could not enter the holiest place himself. The altar of incense was in the Hekhal, just outside the Holy of Holies which was screened off by a heavy curtain.

So, here’s the thing. Yahweh was unapproachable by anyone other than the Chief Priest. Yahweh’s Law, given to Moshe (Moses) must be fully obeyed, throughout a person’s entire life. Zekharya and other members of the priestly family could make sin offerings and other offerings as required when someone failed to obey the law in some way. But there always had to be a Priest in the loop, a sinner could not be purified any other way.

This promised son, to be called Yohanan, would prepare the way for ha Machiach (the Messiah) who would bring in a new covenant in which all people could approach Yahweh directly. So Zekharya and Elishwa had major roles to play as the parents of the one who would prepare a way for the Messiah and a new and different way to approach Yahweh. The old way of the Law was going to be replaced by a new way of grace.

Nobody, not even Zekharya and Elishwa could imagine what this new way would be like, but the son to be born in their old age was going to announce it and prepare for it, the angel had made that clear enough.

Struck dumb

It’s easy, perhaps natural, to see this as punishment for Zekarya’s disbelief. But there’s another, more likely, and I think better possibility. If Zekarya is able to speak he’ll probably relate his doubts to friends, family, and anyone willing to listen to the ramblings of an aged man. He’ll also tell them that he is to become a father, but they can see his age and his wife’s age, and for that reason alone nobody will believe a word he says. Better then, that he says nothing until the child is born. That way, faced with such a miracle, people will have little choice but to believe everything he tells them.

One other point might confirm my last paragraph. Luke is providing some historical background to the beginning of a new relationship between Yahweh and his people. This new relationship will replace punishment for wrong action with forgiveness and a new beginning. Under those circumstances seeing Zekarya’s dumbness as punishment is a bad fit with the rest of the story Luke is planning to write. It would be like starting off on the wrong foot.

Meanwhile in the Court of Israel and/or the Court of the Priests, people were beginning to wonder why Zekarya was taking so long over burning some incense. When he did leave the Temple he was unable to talk, they realised he’d had a vision as he was making signs about it. He returned home when his period of service was complete, Elishwa became pregnant and remained in seclusion for five months, rejoicing that she had been favoured by Yahweh and was now free of criticism and the disgrace of a woman unable to provide her husband with a son.

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A stunning ceiling

We went to see Worcester’s famous cathedral. There was a service underway so we couldn’t visit the nave, but today’s photo shows a section of ceiling between the choir and the altar retaining stunningly beautiful medieval-style painted decoration.

A stunning ceiling

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Image of the day – 201

What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.

We visited Worcester recently, we wanted to visit the birthplace of the famous composer, Edward Elgar, in a nearby village, but afterwards we drove to the old city, parked the car, and went to see the famous cathedral. There was a service underway so we couldn’t visit the nave, but today’s photo shows a section of ceiling between the choir and the altar retaining stunningly beautiful medieval-style painted decoration. The stone vaulting was built in the 14th century and the decoration restored in Victorian times.

Beautiful buildings

Up until Henry VIII’s split from the Catholic Church, some of the most beautiful buildings in Britain were the old monasteries and abbeys, all of them Catholic and most of them destroyed and/or sold off to Henry’s associates and friends. A few centuries later Oliver Cromwell’s men caused further loss and damage, pulling down statues and rood screens, whitewashing painted masonry, and more.

Here are a few of the ruined treasures I’ve seen with my own eyes and wished I might have seen before their destruction took place: Cirencester Abbey, Fountains Abbey, Malmesbury Abbey, Tintern Abbey, Whitby Abbey. See some of these and many more at English Heritage.

But here in Worcester Cathedral some of that splendour is still to be seen, and the ceiling is just a part of it. We can make good guesses about some of the losses from documents, drawings and paintings created by people who had seen some these places before they were destroyed. Past structures can be partially imagined as well, reconstructed in our minds from fragmentary records glued together by informed thinking.

This can be extended to the deeper past as well, we can imagine Roman Cirencester (or Corinium as it was known during that era), and know small parts of it quite well based on excavated remains and reconstructions.

And in our own day?

What parts of our own early 2000s architecture and artworks will be lost before future generations have an opportunity to admire and enjoy them? We do have one advantage over past times, and that’s our ability to photograph and video structures and artworks before they are lost. This was emphasised for me when Donna and I visited the Lowther Estate during our recent family holiday in the Lake District. We drove east from our holiday house in Windermere to visit this very grand old palace, built in 1806 to replace Lowther Hall which had suffered a fire and was in a poor state of repair.

The days of grand, old houses were passing and Lowther Castle was no exception. The grounds were used for tank training during World War 2 and the beautiful and extensive gardens decayed and were later used to grow spruce for timber. The roof of the building was removed along with many of the internal walls. The two photos below show part of the interior more than 100 years ago and as it appears today.

These images represent similar parts of the building. I can’t claim they’re correctly matched, but they are close. The top photo was taken before the roof was removed and the interior structures demolished.

Click the photos to expand them.

The lower photo shows the area as it is today. These images allow us to compare two instants in time, one before the destruction and one afterwards. In a sense we can see what has changed. Technology moves on, the first image lacks colour. For more recent changes we can compare colours, movement, sound and more. So the further back in time we go, the less full and accurate the information tends to be.

There’s one more detail worth mentioning. If you expand the first photo and look at the upper right, you’ll see a statue, probably of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale (1757–1844), the man who had the present castle built between 1806 and 1814. He’s depicted as a knight in chain mail with a large sword. A small piece of that statue survives and today stands incongruously in the gardens outside the ruined building. This is one of the few details of the interior still visible to visitors today.

It seems extraordinary today that such an amazing building would be deliberately destroyed, but death duties often made it impossible for stately homes to continue in occupation and that was the case with Lowther Castle. So many lovely old houses were demolished for the same reason during the early 20th century. It’s one of the tragedies of that period of British history.

But there’s much to celebrate, too. The National Trust and English Heritage were set up to save, restore and conserve what remains; and without them we would have lost so, so much more. Let’s remember, too, that we each live our own lives and there are so many ways we can care for the people and places we value. Surely our place in this world, individually and together, is to do as much good and as little harm as possible in every aspect of our daily lives. So enjoy today to the utmost, care for the people you meet and the places you go, focus on justice, peace and beauty and you won’t go far wrong.

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Image of the day – 26

An old castle made new

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Are we dead or alive?

If I tell someone that I follow Jesus they will expect him to be like me. If I am mean, greedy, selfish and easily angered people will pick up the notion that Jesus might be like that too.

Dry bones (Wikimedia)

A few days ago I posted Butterfly dead or alive? I considered the difference between a dead butterfly and a living one. I thought about this in biological terms, suggesting I’d write again soon on the spiritual aspects for people following Jesus. This is that second article.

I’ll go through each of the main points from that earlier article to draw spiritual truth out for anyone who believes they are alive in Christ. So here goes…

Ability to move

If I’m spiritually dead, then like the dead butterfly I will be unable to move. But what is spiritually equivalent to the physical ability to move? There may be more than one way of looking at this. Read Acts 17:1-8. What does this mean, in real, practical terms? Try reading the entire chapter, Acts 17, and it will become clear. Paul was explaining to Greek philosophers in Athens that the ‘Lord of Heaven and Earth’ is not served by humans because there’s nothing we can provide that he doesn’t already have. Instead he’s the One who gives us life and breath and everything else we might need. You’re not spiritually alive until you start paying attention to Jesus and agree to let him work in you and through you. He will change you in so many ways, all of them good. But if you’ve never met him before and never spent time with him you will not become alive spiritually. When you allow him to touch you in this way you will become alive and aware and, like the living butterfly, you’ll be able to move with energy that is within you, the essential energy Jesus has placed in you. The dead butterfly would be dried up and provide food for the ants. The living butterfly can detect predators, move to safety, and gather energy from floral nectar.

When we’re spiritually dead we can do nothing to help ourselves, but when Jesus has made us alive we can move freely, and not just in this physical world for we can now move spiritually too. It’s difficult to describe this to someone who has not yet experienced it. But come on in! You will never regret it.

Appearance, colour, lustre

As you continue to learn from Jesus you will become a thing of beauty and fragrance, well maintained spiritually, colourful, clean and cared for. The body ages and deteriorates over the years, but the spiritual heart and life will never age or fade.

Ability to sense danger

There are forces of spiritual evil in the world, as well as the more obvious physical dangers we face from falling rocks, dangerous drivers, illnesses of many kinds, or the occasional thunderstorm, earthquake, or volcano. Jesus does not give us any guarantee of safety from the physical world, but he will alert us to and protect us from spiritual danger and damage – if we pay more attention to him and his Holy Spirit than we do to our own ideas and preferences. Often, sadly, we do not.

Reproduction

This is an important one.

Spiritual reproduction is not like biological reproduction, although both result in growing numbers. In the case of spiritual reproduction it’s mostly a matter of living lives that will make people ask themselves, What’s different about them? People tend to know a good thing when they see it. If I tell someone that I follow Jesus they will expect him to be like me. If I am mean, greedy, selfish and easily angered people will pick up the notion that Jesus might be like that too. So I’d better become kinder, more gentle and helpful and generous, more loving towards the people around me.

Metabolism

Living creatures of all kinds, including people, have an active metabolism, it begins in humans and other animals when a sperm fertilises an egg cell, generating the very beginning of a new organism. And that metabolism continues all day and all night, year in and year out, until that new organism dies through accident, illness, or old age. There is a spiritual analogue for metabolism too. There are complex actions and interactions going on in the life of the church. A church can be healthy or sick, it can be hungry or fat, it can be happy or truly miserable. There are spiritual gifts poured out over people who follow Jesus and gather as church. These gifts are crucial in forming and sustaining church growth in helpful and useful ways.

I’ll finish by mentioning two phrases that are sometimes used in church circles; they both come from Romans chapter 6 and verse 11.

The first one is ‘Dead to sin’
The second is ‘Alive in Christ’.

Would you rather be dead, or alive? That, my friends, is the choice before us.

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