"It looks like Johnson's "new" proposals are dead in the water."
Both Varadkar and the EU executive have indicated that they are prepared to negotiate changes to the proposals

Surely not "dead in the water" if, as you say both Varadker & the EU executive are prepared to use them as a basis for negotiation. That is what Boris said when putting them forward.
If they were "dead in the water" then Varadker and the EU would have dismissed them out-of-hand.