Reuters is reporting that the US is boarding the sanctioned oil tanker Marinera (formerly Bella-1) after tracking it for two weeks across the Atlantic. The Iranian vessel was previously under the flag of Guyana but switched to Russia mid-journey. It is currently 124 miles south of Iceland and executing strange manoeuvres…
US forces launched from British soil. There is no oil on the vessel. The Russians are very interested in keeping it in their hands…
Reports said that Russia had dispatched a submarine to defend it. The tanker got through a US blockade off Venezuela. Things coming to a head now…
UPDATE: The RAF was involved in the operation. The US also says it has seized a second tanker – A “stateless, sanctioned dark fleet motor tanker” was taken before dawn.
Starmer has committed to a Commons vote prior to any deployment of British troops to Ukraine as part of the agreed political statement yesterday. The troops would serve as a deterrent after a ceasefire…
“I will be clear with the House that there would only be deployment after a ceasefire. It would be to support Ukraine’s capabilities. It would be to conduct deterrence operations and to construct and protect military hubs. The number the number will be determined in accordance with our military plans which we are drawing up and looking to other members to support. So the number I will put before the House before we were to deploy. But I’ll do more than that if we went as far as a legal instrument to deploy, which would be necessary. I would then have a debate in this house so all members could know exactly what we’re doing, make their points of view, and and then we would have a vote in this House on the issue, which to my mind is the proper procedure in a situation such as this.”
No detail on the number of troops who would be sent out. The PM said “of course I will speak to President Trump.” At some point…
Badenoch pressed Starmer on when Britain would actually spend 3% of GDP on defence. No answer again:
“We have increased the defence spend… that means better kit, better housing… that does compare to their record.”
It’s a hard power world…
Polling by YouGov shows that on the week Labour wants to talk up its policies on the cost of living, net approval of the government’s handling of the cost of living drops to the lowest level since the existence of its tracker. In October 2022….
The pollster reports:
“In less positive news for Keir Starmer, a mere 8% of Britons say the government is handling the cost of living well, compared to 85% who say it is handling it badly. This represents the lowest net score (-77) since YouGov began tracking in late 2022.”
Under the Tories the public blamed Coronavirus and the Ukraine War on a rising cost of living. This is no longer the case as 65% now blame “government failure to take strong action”…
Downing Street communications director Tim Allan boasted that ‘cost of living’ announcements like Starmer’s discussion of rail fares on Monday were a “strong start” to the year. Oof…
- Ruth Cadbury (Lab)
- Sarah Olney (LibDem)
- Peter Bedford (Con)
- Alison Griffiths (Con)
- Toby Perkins (Lab)
- Angus MacDonald (LibDem)
- Claire Hanna (SDLP)
- Wendy Morton (Con)
- Rachael Maskell (Lab)
- Claire Young (LibDem)
- Bill Esterson (Lab)
- Johanna Baxter (Lab)
- Munira Wilson (LibDem)
- Fabian Hamilton (Lab)
- Harriett Baldwin (Con)
Jolyon has confirmed the worst: he’s leaving Musk’s X. Well, after he’s downloaded an archive of all his own great tweets…
The image based abuse is the last straw. Am requesting an archive and will then deactivate my account.
— Jo Maugham (@JolyonMaugham) January 6, 2026
Jolyon sent more than 145,000 posts before calling it quits, so that’s quite a large archive. There’s really only one tweet he needs to save:
It’s been a pleasure, farewell. Unless he does a Sopel and returns within 24 hours…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”
