Seen in the News

[Tizer]

Agreed Peter, but do those options carry the possibility of access to rare earths?

I doubt that Trump and his gang have considered the practicality of mining rare earths in the Arctic temperatures and environment. Such minerals are present at extremely low levels and need vast amounts of water to process the millions of tons of rock that would be mined or quarried. That's also why it's difficult in desert situations like in South America and causes so much pollution. In the Arctic temperatures it would need enormous amounts of energy to melt ice for the processing. It's a bit like Trump wanting American oil companies to grab all Venezuela's oil - they don't want to try because it's the worst type of oil, sells very cheap and is used mostly for making asphalt (and diesel after much expensive processing).

[Stanley]

That's a lovely example of the advantages of having experts on the site! Thanks Peter, a good clear explanation. They are thin on the ground these days....

HERE'S an imaginative defence against complicity in Epstein's sexual shenanigans......
Lord Mandelson has said he never saw girls at Jeffrey Epstein's properties, and declined to apologise to the late paedophile's victims for maintaining his friendship with the American because he was not "knowledgeable of what he was doing". In his first interview since being sacked as the UK's ambassador to the US over his links to Epstein, he told the BBC he thought he had been "kept separate" from the sexual side of the late financier's life because he was gay. He was fired after emails emerged showing supportive messages he had sent to Epstein after the American was convicted for soliciting prostitution from a minor. The former ambassador said the only people he had seen at Epstein's properties were "middle-aged housekeepers". He said he would have apologised were he "in any way complicit or culpable" but stressed that was never the case.

And in another report.....
See THIS reassurance on Trump and Greenland....
US President Donald Trump would not "land on Greenland and take it by force", Lord Mandelson has said. The former UK ambassador to the US told the BBC he admired Trump's "directness" in political talks but said he was not a "fool", and advisers would remind him that taking Greenland could spell "real danger" for the US national interest. There has been growing focus during Trump's second term on how the semi-autonomous Danish territory is run, with Trump saying on Saturday the US needed to "own" Greenland to stop Russia and China from doing so. Denmark and Greenland say the territory is not for sale, with Denmark warning military action would spell the end of the Nato military alliance. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will hold talks with Denmark about Greenland next week. The AFP news agency reports that a Danish poll suggests that 38% of Danes think the US will launch an invasion of Greenland under the Trump administration. Speaking on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, Lord Mandelson said: "He's not going to do that [use military action to take Greenland]. I don't know, but I'm offering my best judgement as somebody who's observed him at fairly close quarters."
So that's all right then....

[Stanley]

See THIS glimpse into the underbelly of our political system....
Former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has become the latest senior Conservative to defect to Reform UK, as Tories claim the move came after he was rebuffed for a peerage. Zahawi, who is a former MP, said he felt the UK had reached a "dark and dangerous" moment, and the country needed "a glorious revolution", as he outlined why he was joining Nigel Farage's party. However, Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake said the move came after he made "a number of approaches" to party leader Kemi Badenoch, pressing his case to be nominated for the House of Lords, but was rejected. Farage unveiled Zahawi's defection at a press conference on Monday, one of around 20 former Tory MPs to join the party.
Lest we forget.... Here's an extract from his Wikipedia entry....
Zahawi was a candidate to succeed Johnson in the Conservative Party leadership election, but was eliminated from the ballot after the first round of voting, and subsequently supported Truss's bid to become Conservative leader. Truss appointed Zahawi as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and Minister for Equalities on 6 September 2022 following her appointment as prime minister. He was succeeded as chancellor by Kwasi Kwarteng. After Truss resigned in October 2022, Zahawi endorsed Johnson to return to the premiership.[5] After Johnson withdrew from the race, he supported Sunak's bid to become Conservative leader. Sunak appointed Zahawi as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio on 25 October 2022 following his appointment as prime minister. On 29 January 2023, he was dismissed from the roles after Sunak's ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus, advised that he had breached the Ministerial Code by failing to disclose that he was being investigated by HM Revenue and Customs while he served in his previous position as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Johnson.
For this he thinks he deserves a peerage.....

[Stanley]

THIS assessment of Kier Starmer's situation is worth a read.....
1 hour ago
Ditching his plans to make digital ID mandatory for workers in the UK is an almighty backtracking and dilution of one of the prime minister's flagship policy ideas of the autumn. I remember the first time Sir Keir Starmer talked publicly about his plans, because he was talking to me when he did so. It was September, and we were sheltering from the pouring rain, in an outside metal stairwell next to a giant ship being built by BAE Systems on the banks of the Clyde in Glasgow. What he had to say that day was rather overshadowed by the swirling storm around his then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who 24 hours later was out of a job. What those around him were describing as "phase 2" of his government was already off to a bumpy start, but digital ID was seen as a defining idea of the parliament that the prime minister could own and then lean into the arguments it provokes with his opponents, within his party and beyond it. The thing is it provoked a lot of arguments, perhaps more than he had anticipated, including among some Labour MPs. It was the mandatory element that became the magnet for the stickiest criticisms. The idea cratered in popularity. It revived so many of the arguments that nuked the last Labour government's plans for ID cards about two decades ago. The sense from critics of an overbearing state, a 'show us your papers' society. So what have ministers done? They have junked the mandatory element of it. People will still have to digitally prove they have the right to work – but could use other things to do it.