Biden will not attend Philip’s funeral. Jill is friends with Harry!
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/biden-not-planning-attend-prince-philip-funeral
On January 5, 2021, the Navy Department released “A Blue Arctic,” which it described as the Navy’s “strategic blueprint for the Arctic [Ocean].” The 28-page paper recognizes that the Arctic Ocean is gradually turning from “white” to “blue,” meaning that “reduced ice coverage is making Arctic waters more accessible and navigable.” The melting polar ice cap has produced the “blue” Arctic.
The Navy paper notes that Russia and China are cooperating in developing and exploiting Arctic resources. The Arctic extends along Russia’s vast northern border, and China, as the paper notes, “views the Arctic Region as a critical link in its One Belt One Road Initiative.” “China’s growing economic, scientific, and military reach, along with its demonstrated intent to gain access and influence over Arctic states, control key maritime ports, and remake the international rules-based order,” the paper warns, “presents a threat to people and nations, including those who call the Arctic Region home.”
In 2018, China issued its own “Arctic Policy” paper in which it described the trans-Arctic sea passage as the “Central Passage.” China’s paper notes that there are now three Arctic shipping routes: the Northeast Passage, Northwest Passage, and the Central Passage, all of which fit into what Chinese Communist Party (CCP) strategists call the “Polar Silk Road.” And as noted in the U.S. Navy’s paper, China is actively cooperating with Russia in this region. As the Arctic Institute notes, “ Geopolitically, this has huge implications as it brings China and Russia closer together as allies.”
The Arctic Region boasts an abundance of natural resources. A CNBC report notes that “At play is between one-fifth and a quarter of the world’s untapped fossil-fuel resources, not to mention a range of mineable minerals, including gold, silver, diamond, copper, titanium, graphite, uranium and other valuable rare earth elements. With the ice in retreat, those resources will come increasingly within reach.”
Watch the water?