There’s some desperate diplomacy happening with Ukraine right now as it struggles to break the war’s deadlock ahead of the Northern winter. President Volodymr Zelensky has met with President Biden in Washington as he tried to persuade a divided US Congress to approve a big aid package. Zelensky’s frustrated the international community isn’t doing more to stop Russia – this week he told a United Nations Security Council meeting that “humankind no longer pins its hopes on the UN”… And he’s got a long list of probs: Poland has stopped supplying Ukraine with weapons over a grain dispute; his European neighbours have been slow to deliver promised missile systems; and China’s rolling out the red carpet for Russia’s President Vladamir Putin in the coming weeks. If you need some diplomatic light relief after all of that… King Charles has been on a state visit to France where he toasted President Emmanual Macron with “you have the wine but we have the humour”. Oui Oui…