January 10, 2025

Greenlanders should sell up to Donald Trump

January 10, 2025 | Listen Online | Read Online

In the headlines

Last year was the world's hottest on record, with average temperatures higher than the 2015 Paris Accord target of 1.5C above pre-industrial times. Experts say a single year does not mean the world has reached that level of global warming overall, but warn that climate change appears to be accelerating faster than expected. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has asked cabinet colleagues to draft alternative plans to boost growth, says The Times, amid concerns that market turmoil is derailing Labour's economic strategy. The cost of government borrowing has reached a 30-year high, surpassing even the peaks around Liz Truss's mini-budget. Two more lynx have been spotted on the loose in the Scottish Highlands. The wild cats were seen in the Cairngorms National Park, close to where another pair of lynx were captured yesterday after being illegally released into the wild. All four are thought to be from the same family group.

Comment

Greenland: worth a few bob. Getty

Greenlanders should sell up to Donald Trump

Donald Trump's efforts to get Denmark to sell him Greenland have prompted predictable uproar, says The Economist. But the reality is that a sale, if Greenlanders agreed to it, could be the "deal of the century" for everyone involved. For the US the gains are obvious. Greenland sits in a strategically important area between America and Russia, which is fast becoming more navigable as Arctic ice melts. Controlling the territory would bolster America's national security, and probably that of its Nato allies. Greenland also has "immense" resource wealth: perhaps the largest deposits of crucial rare earth metals outside China, and an estimated 52 billion barrels of oil reserves. These resources have been relatively untapped, but the warming climate is making them more accessible.

Many would argue that Greenlanders should "go it alone". But natural resource bonanzas are often a recipe for corruption, and it will surely be hard for the island's 56,000 inhabitants to govern effectively with such an enormous windfall – "imagine an English town council being given Saudi Arabia's oilfields". Selling up to Washington would bring "the full might of America's administrative and security apparatus". It would also, if the price is right, make residents very rich indeed: the US "could probably make every Greenlander a multi-millionaire and still benefit enormously from the purchase". You never know, if a referendum were held they might just go for it. Trump should retract his threat of force and "try putting some red meat in front of the polar bear".

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Nature

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Plants and animals are adapting to humanity's influence in remarkable ways, says Patrick Greenfield in The Guardian. Cliff swallows, which often nest under bridges, have developed shorter wings, reducing the risk of being hit by passing cars. Magpies repurpose anti-bird spikes as protection for their own nests against crows and other egg-thieving predators. Many female African elephants in Mozambique and Tanzania no longer grow tusks, because their tuskless forebears were less likely to be targeted by poachers. And to cope with warmer temperatures in cities, urban snails have evolved to have shells with paler colours.

Inside politics

People claim the Pakistani perpetrators in the rape gangs scandal can't be deported because of the European Convention on Human Rights, says Douglas Murray in The Spectator, but that's "pure diversion". Italy and France are also signatories of the convention, but "when they need to act they just do so". In 2023, the French deported the 39-year-old Uzbek national Mukhsinjon Akhmedov in direct contravention of an ECHR ruling. The Italian government expels people it regards as "not conducive to the public good" pretty much every year. Why can't we?

Noted

007's revolving number plate in Goldfinger (1964)

Motorists in New York have been deploying some ingenious "DIY tactics" to avoid the city's new congestion charge, says the New York Post. Some cover up or modify a single digit on their licence plate by scratching it, painting over it or even sticking a bolt through it. Others use a "translucent goo" that renders it harder for the toll cameras to read. A few even use "plate-flippers" that rotate the licence plate at the press of a button from inside the car, as on James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger.

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Japanese straggler Hiroo Onoda finally being led out of the jungle in 1974. Jiji Press/AFP/Getty

Come on professor, the war's over

When Japan surrendered at the end of World War Two, not everyone got the memo, says Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. Unaware that the war was over, Hiroo Onoda, a lieutenant in the imperial army, carried on fighting in the jungles of the Philippines for another 29 years. I was reminded of this story when I read that the universities of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent had published a review into their own historic links to the slave trade, in which they denounced "racially unbalanced" curriculums and declared that degree courses should no longer focus on the "undertakings of white people". Of course, we've read countless stories of this kind in recent years. But it's 2025. Don't these universities know the war is over?

All that hysterical hand-wringing about the supposed need to "decolonise" academia was just a panicked middle-class response to the Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020. Even in the leftiest circles it's now all about Gaza and why it's "far-right" to prosecute rape gangs. "BLM is distinctly passé." Yet, like Hiroo Onoda, these poor oblivious academics are fighting fruitlessly on. I wish someone would take them to one side and gently break the news. "Professors! Stop! It's over!" Even the Americans aren't bothering with this self-flagellating tripe any more. And if some "purple-haired student nitwit" moans about studying the undertakings of white people, politely explain that your university is British, and almost all the major figures in British history were, "shocking though it may seem", white. And since this student couldn't work that out, "he or she clearly isn't intelligent enough to be at university in the first place".

Love etc

Matthias and Noemi at work in the Netflix series Call My Agent

Encouraging remote workers to return to the office is proving just as much of a challenge in France as it is in Britain, says the Daily Mail. But a new survey should remind French WFHers of what they're missing: an impressive 25% of forty and fifty-somethings in France admit that they have had "carnal relations" at work. Favoured locations for le rumpy pumpy include the office itself, the lift, and, rather less glamorously, the stairwell.

Life

Elon Musk – world's richest man, CEO of six billion-dollar companies and newest member of the Trump court – has somehow found the time to become one of the top-ranked players of the video game Diablo IV, says The Wall Street Journal. Devotees of the demon-slaying fantasy game say reaching the level Musk did in November would normally involve "sitting all day, every day, at your computer playing". The billionaire recently shared a video of himself completing one of the hardest levels in under two minutes, captioned: "So many life lessons to be learned from speedrunning video games on max difficulty."

Snapshot

Snapshot answer

It's the modest suburban home used as Walter White's family abode in Breaking Bad, which has gone on sale for the first time since the series aired, says The Independent. The four-bedroom house in Albuquerque, New Mexico featured extensively in the hit series, but that has come at a cost for homeowner Joanne Quintana: she says around 300 die-hard fans drive past the property every day, some of whom throw pizzas on the roof to recreate a famous scene. She has stuck it on the market for $4m – 10 times the average house price in the area – saying: "We're done." Put your offer in here.

Quoted

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein

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Houston Rodeo 2025 lineup revealed

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January 10, 2025

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It's finally Friday. Yesterday, the fires continued to rage in California, taking down thousands of homes, including those of Beyoncé's mom, Tina Knowles, and Houston rapper Fat Tony. Just how big are the fires? See them compared to Houston here. Why are they happening? Find out here.

☁️ Temperature check: High of 44; low of 34. Justin's insight: Thursday's rain will finally push out of Southeast Texas on Friday, leaving skies clear to see a rare planetary alignment. But Houston must get through one more freezing night before warmer weather arrives. Sign up for our Weather Radar newsletter for more weather news.

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The RodeoHouston 2025 lineup has been released.

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RodeoHouston's 2025 concert lineup is out. Here's who's performing.

Nine newcomers, a returning country music legend and a genre-hopping superstar highlight the 2025 RodeoHouston lineup. The announcement was made Thursday evening after weeks of anticipation and guesses. The lineup includes:

Reba McEntire
Bun B
Lauren Daigle
Journey
Grupo Frontera
Post Malone
Brad Paisley
Luke Bryan
Brooks & Dunn

See the full lineup here, and find out when and how to get tickets here. Have thoughts about the lineup? Drop them here.

📰 Top Stories

AN 'OLD SCHEME' TO SELL HOUSTON'S WATER: Gov. Greg Abbott and Houston Mayor John Whitmire floated a harebrained scheme to sell the city's water to West Texas, writes business columnist Chris Tomlinson. Tomlinson says it's an epically bad idea.
TEXAS SCHOOL FINANCE EXPLAINED: 180 districts, out of more than 1,000 statewide, give a portion of their property tax revenue to the state instead of spending it on their students. The controversial school funding mechanism, called "recapture," is often a point of discussion at the Legislature, which begins session next week. Here's what to know about it.
WHERE ARE THE WARMING CENTERS? As frigid weather swept across the state this week, most major Texas cities opened warming centers for those in need of a place to go — but not Houston. Here's why.
BIBLE-INFUSED CURRICULUM: The Conroe ISD Board of Trustees got a first look at the controversial Bible-infused curriculum recently approved by the Texas Board of Education and gave staff the green light to seek teacher feedback.
TOXIC WASTE PITS: East of Houston's city limits, a battered Interstate 10 bridge soars over a narrow point in the San Jacinto River, slicing across the peninsula that houses two waste pits where toxic sludge was dumped for decades. Now, it's finally going to be removed.

🎥 Things to do this Weekend

ATTEND A LOCAL EVENT: Our top weekend event picks include a Texans game, BowiElvis Fest, Bumper Cars on Ice at Discovery Green, Galveston Restaurant Week and Sketch 'em All: A Pokemon Art Show.
GET IN ON A BEARD GROWING COMPETITION: For folks who find it easy to grow facial hair, Saint Arnold Brewing is kicking off its Donegal Beard Growing Competition this Sunday. Here's what to know.
CATCH A NEW MOVIE: The major films being released in theaters or on streaming this week include "Unstoppable," "The Last Showgirl," "Better Man," "Game Changer," "Porcelain War" and "Emilia Perez."
HAVE THE BEST DAY EVER: Abbas Dhanani, owner of Burger Bodega and creator of Houston Eatz, shared what his best day in Houston looks like. It includes breakfast at the Hot Bagel Shop and a basketball game.

🗣 Community Corner

Photo by: Yasmeen Khalifa

"When I was serving time, I believed there were parts of me that prison couldn't touch. John Henry Ramirez, a Christian on death row, made me wonder if that's true," writes Keri Blakinger.

📅 Events at the Chronicle

Photo by: Houston Chronicle Staff

EVENT: Meet the new Harris County DA Sean Teare

Chronicle readers are invited to a private Zoom with Sean Teare, Harris County's District Attorney, as he enters his first month in office.

☝️ One Last Word

You guys, it's here. Dreaded tax season.

Just typing that makes my skin crawl. But I must do my duty as a journalist and inform you.

IRS Free File opened today for 2024 tax filing. Sigh. Will my procrastination win again this year? We'll find out...

— Yasmeen Khalifa

Puzzle of the Day: Typeshift

Slide the columns of letters up and down to form words in the highlighted row. Score points for each solid letter.

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UNCORE stresses that members of Close Your Eyes from 'Project 7' cannot promote outside of their project group activities, issues a warning to the members' respective labels [1.10.25]

allkpop Newsletter

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Daily update ⋅ Jan 10, 2025

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