That happens, we have some tea and we want something to snack with the tea, I also have that need with coffee, but there I tend to simply rely on the trusty toasted Blueberry muffin. Its yummy with some coffee, preferably a cappuccino. Tea has different needs, for the most I have some Tiramisu, or a Black Forest Cake. The other thing I used to love and it seems to be the limiting Dutch option of the Cream Cake, I haven’t seen it anywhere outside of the Netherlands and Belgium. Anywhere else it is not the yummy experience.
As for yummy options, Aljazeera (at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/14/saudi-arabia-announces-plans-to-enrich-and-sell-uranium) gives us now ‘Saudi Arabia announces plans to enrich and sell uranium’ and before you start blaming Saudi Arabia with all kinds of messes, remember that the west (particularly USA) was unable to contain Iran with their nuclear messes. Remember Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Between 2005-2013 he made a right mess and enriched to his heart content, Saudi Arabia was confronted with over half a decade of worrisome Iranian tactics as was Israel. In that setting Saudi Arabia had set the tone that they weren’t starting this, but they would match Iran in their actions. And now we get “Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud told a conference in Dhahran on Monday that the move is part of a strategy to monetise all minerals, according to Reuters news agency.” I say if you need to do something, you better get some coins out of it. And it seems that Saudi Arabia is doing just that. It is the setting of “Trump pursued a policy of “maximum pressure”, withdrawing the US from a landmark deal which imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief. Tehran adhered to the deal until Washington’s withdrawal, but then began rolling back its commitments.” And the setting that Iran rolled back its commitments is (my personal view) the reason that Saudi Arabia made these steps. The fact that they are clever about it and let this setting evolve through its own funding might be a speculative reason for this. All that time that America and the EU smoothed over the actions of Iran is precisely the reason that we are facing this. In all honesty I feel more secure with Saudi Arabia doing this than Iran ever did. It was the initial reason why I created the (optional and untested) Meltdown solution. There is nothing like a nuclear reactor melting down on itself, and when I saw images of Chernobyl my brain went to work and the result was put in ‘Keeping my promise, part 1’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2021/12/14/keeping-my-promise-part-1/) and the hilarious part of this was that Iran would be spending a few billions only to see it meltdown in the first month. I do have a quirky sense of humor. But as things go, Saudi Arabia is in the market of selling the stuff and it is their mineral and I think that good business is where you find it. I reckon it will take America a few days to shout at the world and they will ‘demand’ a peaceful solution. I say stuff that. They could never contain Iran (and the world applauded their non-actions) and look where that has got them. So whilst we see “Riyadh has yet to fire up its first nuclear reactor, which allows its program to still be monitored under the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency that exempts less advanced states from many reporting obligations and inspections.” We have to see that Saudi Arabia is much more than sand and oil (they have tourist space as well). Now that they are moving into the yellowcake market we need to see what comes up. I reckon that it won’t be the money fountain they would wish for as yellowcake goes for roughly $60 per kilo. It is roughly the price of tuna, so there is that issue to consider. Yet the foundation of ‘part of a strategy to monetise all minerals’ is something I would applaud and nearly every country should consider this. There are of course ethical issues to consider, but if the world does nothing about Iran, they have no business interfering with Saudi Arabia either, apart from the small fact that I trust Saudi Arabia a whole lot more than Iran.
So have a great day and do try the Tiramisu today with coffee.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 