No tags, links or clips by myself

Just a recommendation which I've mentioned before 

Watch Bitter Lake by Adam Curtis 

It's the closest explanation I've seen to our relatively modern fucked up world

All going to plan.

Only cost us $37.5 billion to date.

We've already won on day 1

Need another $67 billion please just in case it drags on a bit longer...

Iran war has cost US $37.5bn so far, Hegseth says, as Pentagon seeks billions more - BBC News

An analysis of the current Iranian thinking and actions

Source Institute for the Study of War (Washington based 'think tank')

Iran is repeatedly attacking US bases and personnel across the region in order to erode US willingness to challenge Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran likely calculates that sustained attacks and rising US casualties will generate domestic pressure on the United States to end the conflict, force the United States to surrender, and accept Iranian control over the strait. The Wall Street Journal reported on July 20 that Iran conducted three ballistic missile strikes against Muwaffaq al Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17 and 18. The first two Iranian missiles reportedly struck a gym and an empty aircraft hangar, while the third struck housing units and killed two US service members.

These strikes demonstrate that Iran can still penetrate US air defenses and inflict casualties despite repeated US strikes on Iranian drone and missile launch sites, storage facilities, and command and control centers. Satellite imagery also shows that Iran attacked King Faisal Air Base and another Jordanian airfield, where Iranian strikes reportedly damaged several US Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. Iran continued to claim attacks on US bases and military assets in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and Qatar on July 20 and 21.

Iran is attacking critical infrastructure in Kuwait to impose direct civilian and economic costs on states that host US forces and pressure them to curtail US military operations. Iran is broadening the costs of the war beyond military facilities by targeting infrastructure that supports essential civilian services. Iran likely calculates that sustained disruptions to electricity and water supplies will increase domestic pressure on Kuwait to restrict US operations from Kuwaiti territory.

Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) / X

20 hours ago, Sluffy said:

All going to plan.

Only cost us $37.5 billion to date.

We've already won on day 1

Need another $67 billion please just in case it drags on a bit longer...

Iran war has cost US $37.5bn so far, Hegseth says, as Pentagon seeks billions more - BBC News

Thank fuck we, and all the other sensible nations decided not to get involved

I did like this bit though.....She asked why Hegseth was asking for tens of billions of dollars for a war the president said had already been won

4 minutes ago, Sweep said:

Thank fuck we, and all the other sensible nations decided not to get involved

I did like this bit though.....She asked why Hegseth was asking for tens of billions of dollars for a war the president said had already been won

Only silver lining is that Trump will be gone by the time Farage becomes PM,

2 hours ago, Sweep said:

Thank fuck we, and all the other sensible nations decided not to get involved

I did like this bit though.....She asked why Hegseth was asking for tens of billions of dollars for a war the president said had already been won

Cost is relative.

The removal of the possibility of those horrible cunts having a nuclear missile is priceless.

Once again, the US pays for the safety of many others.

Do we think Israel is going to be happy that Saudi Arabia are going to be a nuclear state, courtesy of Trump? Might be appear to be no direct threat to the West atm, but it's the biggest proponent of Wahhabism, which is very fundamentalist Islam and has inspired many atrocities against other countries and religions

23 minutes ago, bolty58 said:

Cost is relative.

The removal of the possibility of those horrible cunts having a nuclear missile is priceless.

Once again, the US pays for the safety of many others.

He's not achieved a regime change, in fact he's made it worse.

He turned free shipping through Hormuz to something the Iranians will now charge for.

He's just allowed Saudi Aribia to have means to make an atomic bomb (which no doubt make Iran want to make one first, if only to protect themselves) and also according to the experts, push both Turkey and Egypt to get one too for their own protection (see last sentence below).

Highly transactional relationships are part of global order under Trumppublished at 00:26

00:26

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent

President Donald Trump and his administration's foreign policy is based on self interest more than any desire to build an international system of values and its nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia should be seen in that context.

Washington’s relationship with the Kingdom has traditionally been weighed against America's broader policy goals for the region. Saudi Arabia has long wanted American expertise and backing for a civilian nuclear programme as well as military equipment and a security pact.

In return, Washington had a single major demand: recognise Israel, their key ally, and normalise diplomatic and economic relations. Saudi Arabia's long-standing policy is that it would recognise Israel only when it ended its military occupation of the Palestinian territories, allowing self-determination and an independent state.

Over the years, Saudi Arabia eventually lowered its price, severing the link between its readiness to recognise Israel and its demand for the two state solution.

The Biden administration was ready to do this deal by summer 2023. But the October 7 Hamas attacks and Israel's war on Gaza smashed any prospect of this.

Trump's readiness to drop the Palestinians and Israelis, at least as far as the nuclear file is concerned, shows how far Washington’s position has evolved.

Bilateral, highly transactional relations are the global order of the day under Trump. Alongside the US war with Iran, all this is further re-ordering the Middle East leaving its states and peoples even more suspicious and concerned for their security.

US signs landmark nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia - follow live - BBC News

11 minutes ago, Burnden Pies said:

Do we think Israel is going to be happy that Saudi Arabia are going to be a nuclear state, courtesy of Trump? Might be appear to be no direct threat to the West atm, but it's the biggest proponent of Wahhabism, which is very fundamentalist Islam and has inspired many atrocities against other countries and religions

Are fears Saudi could seek nuclear weapon justified?

published at 22:26 22 July

22:26 22 July

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Will the Saudis now seek a nuclear bomb?

No. At least, not as things stand today. But that is the fear that inevitably surrounds this deal. Iran enriched its own uranium and look what happened there.

Deep below its desert mountains, out of sight of prying US satellites, the Islamic Republic went ahead and enriched 441kg of uranium to 60% purity, far beyond the 3.67% needed for civil nuclear power and only a short step away from the weapons-grade Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) needed to build a bomb.

That HEU is thought to be still down in the tunnels where it was bombed last year in the US Operation Midnight Hammer.

There is nothing to suggest Saudi Arabia has any intention of doing the same as Iran, or of diverting its nascent civil nuclear programme towards a military purpose.

But the Saudis live in a dangerous neighbourhood and if Iran were to acquire a nuclear weapon then they would want one of their own as a deterrent.

Yet far more likely than going through the long, laborious and illegal process of enriching their uranium to 90% and then making that into a warhead they could, in theory, simply buy the bomb ‘off the shelf’ from their ally, Pakistan.

You asked about Israel...

Saudi-US deal different to US's typical nuclear energy agreements

published at 20:59 22 July

20:59 22 July

Gary O'Donoghue
Chief North America correspondent

This looks set to be a 30-year deal between the US and Saudi Arabia, to build civil nuclear capacity, potentially bringing in tens of billions of dollars for US firms.

But it's a different kind of deal to traditional US commercial nuclear agreements.

What is being widely reported is that Saudi Arabia might not be subject to the normal "gold standards" the US has previously demanded of partner countries in terms of inspections and, in particular, the non-enrichment of uranium on the host country's soil.

So, this is a different kind of deal that the US is proposing, and the reason they are pushing for it - particularly now - is that Russia and China have been knocking on the door and the US simply did not want to miss out.

It's a deal that’s been in the offing for some time - the Biden administration had pursued something similar; though that deal had been tied to Saudi Arabia normalising relations with Israel.

That link seems now to have been dropped by the Trump White House.

There's been no formal announcement yet, but when it comes, expect Israel to express its displeasure.

BBC News

'What was their crime?': BBC visits Iran school in Minab...

Nearly five months on, grief is still raw as a teacher and a mother recall the horror of the attack in Minab.

12 hours ago, bolty58 said:

Cost is relative.

The removal of the possibility of those horrible cunts having a nuclear missile is priceless.

Once again, the US pays for the safety of many others.

Safety?! Are you fishing again 🤔.

I think most folk would argue that due to US /Israel actions in Gaza and Iran the region and world in general is a lot less safe these days.

Looks as though Trumps doing yet another TACO

Saudis must normalise ties with Israel for nuclear deal, says Trump - BBC News

The landmark nuclear deal announced between the US and Saudi Arabia is dependent on Riyadh joining the Abraham Accords, in other words recognising the state of Israel, US President Donald Trump has said.

"The Civil Nuclear Deal (There will be no enrichment of material!)... which pertains only to non-military use... will be approved, but is totally subject to Saudi Arabia joining the very respected and successful Abraham Accords," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump's remarks come after criticism from experts that the deal could run the risk of future nuclear proliferation in an already unstable region.

This from the BBC's Economic Editor could be posted under a few other threads, such as one of the politics threads, the one on Trump or even the Burnham one but I post it here because the cause of all this is Trump's war leading to the blocking of Hormuz.

Oil price hits $100, UK gas futures reach highest level since Iran War started as fears escalate over shortages at same time as Europe refills gas storage, government bond yields heading north, including in the UK, and now notable falls in US tech stocks… Markets starting to doubt the presumption of “Taco before the mid terms”. Situation had started to look calmer over past month. These are significant clouds for global economy and so too for the new Burnham “cost of living” Govt.

Edited July 23Jul 23 by Sluffy

On 23/07/2026 at 17:11, deeane Koontz said:

BBC News

'What was their crime?': BBC visits Iran school in Minab...

Nearly five months on, grief is still raw as a teacher and a mother recall the horror of the attack in Minab.

Fashion.

5 hours ago, bolty58 said:

Fashion.

Are you talking about the dead School kids?

Edited July 25Jul 25 by deeane Koontz

1 hour ago, deeane Koontz said:

Are you talking about the dead School kids?

Can't you take a jest? It's how we deal with things in the UK. Lighten up you fanny.

16 minutes ago, bolty58 said:

Can't you take a jest? It's how we deal with things in Australia. Lighten up you fanny.

On 23/07/2026 at 00:18, bolty58 said:

Cost is relative.

The removal of the possibility of those horrible cunts having a nuclear missile is priceless.

Once again, the US pays for the safety of many others.

Trump said a year ago that he'd set them back decades with regards to getting a nuclear weapon. Apparently though, they were only weeks away from having one...I don't know though about it, but a lot of so called experts do seem to doubt they were actually only a fortnight away from having such a weapon

If that second bit is true, and he just misspoke (as opposed to lied) initially, then of course it is good they won't have a nuclear bomb any time soon.

If the US are paying, then that's a good thing, saves us having to do it.

I know you think it's all part of some wonderful long-term master plan by Trump, but that certainly doesn't seem to be the case at the minute. Especially as every two of the days he tells us how he's won the war, and Iran now has zero military capability, yet they still asked for more funding to go towards this war they've already won 10 times in the last 3 months...There may only be you left in the world that actually believes him now.

Edited July 25Jul 25 by Sweep

35 minutes ago, Sweep said:

Trump said a year ago that he'd set them back decades with regards to getting a nuclear weapon. Apparently though, they were only weeks away from having one...I don't know though about it, but a lot of so called experts do seem to doubt they were actually only a fortnight away from having such a weapon

If that second bit is true, and he just misspoke (as opposed to lied) initially, then of course it is good they won't have a nuclear bomb any time soon.

If the US are paying, then that's a good thing, saves us having to do it.

I know you think it's all part of some wonderful long-term master plan by Trump, but that certainly doesn't seem to be the case at the minute. Especially as every two of the days he tells us how he's won the war, and Iran now has zero military capability, yet they still asked for more funding to go towards this war they've already won 10 times in the last 3 months...There may only be you left in the world that actually believes him now.

There may be only you left in the world who could believe that 🤣

1 hour ago, bolty58 said:

There may be only you left in the world who could believe that 🤣

To be honest I don't, like the rest of us, I think you've always known he's the worst thing to happen to US and/or Global politics for a long time, and that he's going to cause the US great harm in the long run. You're just playing in your faux liking of him.

15 hours ago, Sweep said:

To be honest I don't, like the rest of us, I think you've always known he's the worst thing to happen to US and/or Global politics for a long time, and that he's going to cause the US great harm in the long run. You're just playing in your faux liking of him.

No I am not. I've always said he's a nutjob but the circuit breaker we had to have. The great disruptor from whom the net result has every chance of being better.

Even the re-election of the un-Democrats in the US could (and should) now result in them behaving much better than they have previously when they realise what the equal and opposite reaction might be. You can attribute the so called global 'rise of the Right' to their previous scurrilous misdemeanours such as the promotion of political correctness and its bastard child 'woke'.

Only 911 days to go. A fine model of Porsche.

4 hours ago, bolty58 said:

No I am not. I've always said he's a nutjob but the circuit breaker we had to have. The great disruptor from whom the net result has every chance of being better.

Even the re-election of the un-Democrats in the US could (and should) now result in them behaving much better than they have previously when they realise what the equal and opposite reaction might be. You can attribute the so called global 'rise of the Right' to their previous scurrilous misdemeanours such as the promotion of political correctness and its bastard child 'woke'.

Only 911 days to go. A fine model of Porsche.

I think you’ve got a full house on the bingo card with this post 👏👏

On 25/07/2026 at 08:04, bolty58 said:

Can't you take a jest? It's how we deal with things in the UK. Lighten up you fanny.

So that's a yes then. Searing wit as ever.

Can never be sure if it's jest or the dreaded 'typo' with you. Fanny.

8 hours ago, Bertie said:

I think you’ve got a full house on the bingo card with this post 👏👏

A 'full house' is the last thing I would ever describe Bolty of having...