Youpe Last Week

Organic Methane and Other Worries

Another week and another look at another week’s goings-on in Europe, or as Grandma Riva, born in Horadenka, Ukraine, circa 1888 — featured here holding a very young Jack Friedman after being called away from her weekly poker game — called it, “Youpe.”

The recent peace plan for Ukraine, presented last week to the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and negotiated between the United States and Russia —Zelenskyy has since rejected it — would have given Russia control of the Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk, promised Putin NATO would not expand, assured him that EU nations would welcome Russia back “into the global economy” and unfreeze Russian assets (which would then be controlled and invested by the United States in a fund giving the U.S. profit incentives). Zelenskyy said, “Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice: either loss of dignity, or the risk of losing a key partner,” “For me, there is no alternative.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she was not in favor of ruling out Russian debt, which was also part of the agreement, saying, “To be honest, it’s the only way forward, and I really like the idea that Russia pays for the damages they have done and committed in Ukraine.” In Switzerland, two men, after purchasing tickets and patiently waiting in line, assaulted a guard at a Roman museum in Lausanne, smashed a display case, and then stole gold coins that police are calling “archaeological value.” The robbery comes at a time when gold prices are soaring and the robbery at the Musée du Louvre in Paris last month is still unsolved. In Venice, Italy, the whale Mimmo is in trouble from gondolas and water buses . . .