Britain will remove a mandatory pre-application consultation requirement for major infrastructure projects, a planning reform that the government says will reduce approval timelines by up to twelve months and save developers around one billion pounds during the current parliament, illustrating the accelerating global race to compress the permitting processes that have become the binding constraint on the infrastructure buildout that the energy transition and the digital economy require.

The reform, removing the statutory consultation requirements for the wind farms, solar projects, reservoirs, and transport links in favor of the earlier engagement between the developers and the planning authorities, reflects the recognition that the lengthy approval processes have slowed the investment and delayed the critical infrastructure that Britain’s economic and energy security ambitions demand.

Saudi Arabia is quietly trying to reinvent itself as a mining superpower, and this new exploration round is another small but telling step in that strategy. Riyadh has opened bidding on three mineral exploration licences covering around 13,000 square kilometres across the regions of  Madinah, Makkah, Riyadh, Qassim and Hail.

These aren’t random patches of desert: they sit on newly delineated mineral belts that the government’s geological survey work has flagged as prospective for gold, silver, copper, zinc and lead. The move comes against the backdrop of official estimates that the kingdom holds mineral resources worth roughly 9.4 trillion riyals, or about $2.5 trillion, still largely untapped beneath its territory.

Saudi Arabia’s foray into the global mining industry has garnered attention as the country aims to invest significant capital in diversifying its economy away from oil and gas. Seeking access to critical minerals like copper, nickel, lithium, and iron ore, essential for electric vehicle batteries…