General News Thread

[st albans fox]

Just now, foxes1988 said:

Everyone seems to be assuming that Greenlanders will accept this but they will all of heard of it and so far they don't seem particularly keen to sign up.

They want 150k 😄

[Foxdiamond]

On a lighter note why on earth is the Beckham family rift worthy of serious news channels 

[Lionator]

Another train crash in Spain, this time Barcelona. Starting to wonder if there are any strange Russian tourists that have taken a shine to Spanish railway tracks

[Trav Le Bleu]

I'd be interested what the average American thinks about the Greenland situation. Surely there must be a sizable chunk who are embarrassed by it and realise this isn't how you treat supposedly friendly nations.

 

Or do they all think that everyone wants to be an American?

 

And finally, should America take Greenland, what chance that any presence there will have to quell partisan action by force?

[Izzy]

4 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I'd be interested what the average American thinks about the Greenland situation. Surely there must be a sizable chunk who are embarrassed by it and realise this isn't how you treat supposedly friendly nations.

Depends how you define 'average American'.

 

I would imagine most educated, proffesionals, in metroploitan cities who have a passport and undertand there's a world outside of the US would indeed be embarrased by it all.

 

But then I guess there's a big proportion of red neck, hillbillies who've never crossed their state line and spend all day hunting, fishing and watching Fox news who can't get enough of it.

 

America is like no other place in the world. It's like 50 different countries and cultures all bolted together under one flag.

 

As a nation that's only 250 years old, they're still in their teenage phase really. 

[Wymsey]

Another train incident in Spain.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1m78xl0gmpo

 

[Jon the Hat]

12 hours ago, WigstonWanderer said:

Rare earths aren’t that rare. It’s the refining that’s hard & polluting. There’s plenty in Australia. China has a monopoly because it refines them cheaply, partly by turning a blind eye to the pollution. As a result it’s been uneconomic for anyone else to enter the market to refine.

The US will be building its own silk road for rare earths and critical minerals.  

[leicsmac]

[Sampson]

8 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

The problem is I still think Trump is nothing compared to what’s coming with AI.

[leicsmac]

13 minutes ago, Sampson said:

The problem is I still think Trump is nothing compared to what’s coming with AI.

Or at least the power it may confer to those who think like him, yes.

 

Interesting times.

[FoxesWalk]

https://open.substack.com/pub/paulwells/p/the-carney-doctrine?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
 

Impressive speech from Carney, a call to

building a new alliance of middle powers to combat threats in east and west. 

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, FoxesWalk said:

https://open.substack.com/pub/paulwells/p/the-carney-doctrine?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
 

Impressive speech from Carney, a call to

building a new alliance of middle powers to combat threats in east and west. 

Carney is the political equivalent of bringing in Sam Allardyce when relegation threatens. 

 

No nonsense safe pair of hands that will say and do the right things.

[Jon the Hat]

I strongly dislike agreeing with Trump on anything, but he is right on Chagos.  Insane deal.

 

Fortunately, I cannot think of much else I agree with him on.

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

I strongly dislike agreeing with Trump on anything, but he is right on Chagos.  Insane deal.

 

Fortunately, I cannot think of much else I agree with him on.

I think we talked about this a few years back when it was news as well. 

 

Is there any reason whatsoever to keep those islands beyond "but the Chinese get them if we don't" (disputable) and throwing a bone to the Americans by keeping easy access to their torture site on Diego Garcia?

[Jon the Hat]

16 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

I think we talked about this a few years back when it was news as well. 

 

Is there any reason whatsoever to keep those islands beyond "but the Chinese get them if we don't" (disputable) and throwing a bone to the Americans by keeping easy access to their torture site on Diego Garcia?

It is a globally significant military base.  Why risk it?  Why pay Mauritius Billions?  The whole premise is nonsense.  It has never been part of Mauritius, the Chagoisian people such as they still exist don't want to be owned by Mauritius.

[CornwallFox]

3 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

It is a globally significant military base.  Why risk it?  Why pay Mauritius Billions?  The whole premise is nonsense.  It has never been part of Mauritius, the Chagoisian people such as they still exist don't want to be owned by Mauritius.

There's been multiple course cases and UN hearings that all found against the UK. You can't just ignore that. The deal confirms sovereignty of the island in accordance with those findings while giving military certainly over an extremely long lease. What do you think should happen?

 

On a tangential point, I cannot tell you the level of annoyance I feel at the Tories attempting to claim labour gave up the island when it was a Tory deal they simply finalised. 

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

It is a globally significant military base.  Why risk it?  Why pay Mauritius Billions?  The whole premise is nonsense.  It has never been part of Mauritius, the Chagoisian people such as they still exist don't want to be owned by Mauritius.

Never heard "globally significant" used as a euphemism for a black bag site before, but fair enough. 

 

I do think the whole thing is something that could have been managed more carefully rather than committing to doing what the UK is doing, especially now as the sociopaths over the pond are trying to use it as a wedge issue when the other day even Farage and Badenoch were in agreement that they're off the reservation. 

[Jon the Hat]

5 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Never heard "globally significant" used as a euphemism for a black bag site before, but fair enough. 

 

I do think the whole thing is something that could have been managed more carefully rather than committing to doing what the UK is doing, especially now as the sociopaths over the pond are trying to use it as a wedge issue when the other day even Farage and Badenoch were in agreement that they're off the reservation. 

It is a hugely important airfield for the USAF, and also a base of equipment which allows the US to put troops on the ground on a huge area of the globe with equipment in a few days rather than weeks, and from a secure well defended base which no one can sink.  The fact the CIA no doubt also use if for nefarious offshore activities doesn't change that.

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

It is a hugely important airfield for the USAF, and also a base of equipment which allows the US to put troops on the ground on a huge area of the globe with equipment in a few days rather than weeks, and from a secure well defended base which no one can sink.  The fact the CIA no doubt also use if for nefarious offshore activities doesn't change that.

Then I guess it comes down to whether a person feels the latter is justified by the former. 

 

But in any case, as per above, I do think the whole thing is being rather inflated out of all proportion, in all likelihood as a distraction from Greenland. Which is in turn a distraction from the Epstein stuff. 

 

What a world we live in. 

[brookfox]

1 hour ago, Sampson said:

The problem is I still think Trump is nothing compared to what’s coming with AI.

Al as in Alan Carr. I knew that Celebrity Traitors win would go to his head.

[Izzy]

Think Macron looks cool AF wearing his shades indoors gotta say

 

[bovril]

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

Special shout out to the leftists that claimed anti-imperialist Trump represented an end to the Democrats forever wars and a break from the 'neoliberal' consensus. 

[leicsmac]

15 minutes ago, bovril said:

Special shout out to the leftists that claimed anti-imperialist Trump represented an end to the Democrats forever wars and a break from the 'neoliberal' consensus. 

Those Twitterati with about 10 different flags in their bios (have to be China, the USSR and Cuba as three of them) are awful quiet right now, it's true.

[Jon the Hat]

44 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Those Twitterati with about 10 different flags in their bios (have to be China, the USSR and Cuba as three of them) are awful quiet right now, it's true.

The internet is still off in Iran I guess.

[Jon the Hat]

2 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

There's been multiple course cases and UN hearings that all found against the UK. You can't just ignore that. The deal confirms sovereignty of the island in accordance with those findings while giving military certainly over an extremely long lease. What do you think should happen?

 

On a tangential point, I cannot tell you the level of annoyance I feel at the Tories attempting to claim labour gave up the island when it was a Tory deal they simply finalised. 

If there is one thing we learned this year, it is that you absolutely can.