Messa of EastCalling chat:

How would the UK send two carriers when they need one for spare parts for the other? Last time they left they merely made it outside the port before the shaft broke or froze 😁

🌒@EastCalling

Orban on X:

I am not looking for trouble with the Ukrainians, but did President Zelensky expect us to sit quietly and twiddle our thumbs? Ukraine has blocked our oil from reaching Hungary. We cannot and will not accept this. Their plan is blackmail. My plan is resilience. Reopen the pipeline now❗️
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Victor Orban is potentially facing an election where the opposition could win in April. However, between Ukraine cutting off Russian gas to Hungary and threatening Orban not so subtly, Orban has retaken the lead in independent polls:

"The results, analysed by Hungarian outlet Index, show Fidesz–KDNP leading with 43 per cent, while the main opposition party Tisza trails at 37 per cent. According to McLaughlin’s data (a US based company), the socialist–progressive Democratic Coalition (DK) and the hard-right Our Homeland (Mi Hazánk) would be the only other parties to pass the 5 per cent parliamentary threshold.

The poll also examined energy security, which has become a central issue in the campaign just weeks before the election, as Ukraine has halted transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline since 27 January. According to McLaughlin’s data, 69 per cent of respondents did not agree with Kyiv’s decision."

Even the Ukraine-sympathetic opposition leader had to denounce the threats against Orban publicly.

🌒@EastCalling

The US does not want to involve the Kurds in the conflict with Iran in order not to complicate the situation, Donald Trump stated.

According to him, Washington is trying not to expand the circle of participants in the war and therefore does not plan to involve Kurdish forces.
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Earlier it was reported that the Kurds rejected Trump's request to start ground operations in Iran because they finally figured out they've been betrayed multiple times.

🌒@EastCalling

Sabereen News reports a hit on the American base in Bahrain.

🌒@EastCalling

Trump claims that Iran is allegedly responsible for the attack on a primary school for girls.

Source: TASS
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This contradicts claims from within Trump's own administration. Administration officials told members of congress in a closed door meeting that the US military was responsible, blaming the incident on outdated maps.

Independent investigations by the New York Times, CNN, and Reuters also blame the USA using satellite imagery.

🌒@EastCalling

Tasnim reports this is current footage of the Haifa refinery in Israel.

🌒@EastCalling

Via Military Chronicle:

In the Asian segment of TikTok, a video is going viral in which a Chinese sailor allegedly spotted the American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and quickly shared its coordinates on his social media accounts.
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Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

🌒@EastCalling

Sabereen News:

"Chinese monitoring systems reveal that in yesterday's Iranian attacks on US bases in Bahrain, about 5 very important radar stations were damaged."
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It's unclear if they are mixing up earlier reports of strikes across the Gulf. Sabereen News, not the Chinese.

🌒@EastCalling

More attacks on Sulaymaniyah in Northern Iraq. A Kurdish fighter attempts to shoot down incoming drones with an American assault rifle.

🌒@EastCalling

Via IRNA:

🚨 🔥 The press secretary of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: we defeated the separatists in cooperation with the Iraqi resistance

Salar Naini:

🔻 The CIA intelligence service actively armed the opposition forces, and, according to reports, Trump himself contacted their leaders to urge them to take action.

🔻 The armed forces and intelligence of Iran, together with the Iraqi resistance, carried out dozens of missile and drone strikes on their bases in the region before the separatists began their activities.

🌒@EastCalling

A building described as a "former UN headquarters" in Sulaymaniyah was hit by drones twice. However, the UN ceased operations in this facility in 1996 when the Kurdish Democratic Party took control during the Kurdish Civil War. Reports vary between the building being disused and used as a headquarters for US forces.

🌒@EastCalling

Are you ready for food prices to skyrocket?

On Monday, Qatar shut down liquefied natural gas production at the world’s largest export facility after it was targeted in an Iranian drone attack.

Natural gas is a crucial input for nitrogen-based fertilizers.

Qatar is a source of some 11% of global urea exports, and nearly 45% of the shipping is via Persian Gulf facilities according to Bloomberg Intelligence.

The Iran war is delivering a potential shock to global food production that has received little attention amid the focus on oil prices: a sharp rise in fertilizer costs hitting just as farmers in the Northern Hemisphere prepare to plant.

Three out of the world’s 10 largest ammonia exporters and one in five top phosphates suppliers rely on the Persian Gulf.

Remember the cost of freight insurance? Lloyds of London is now out....President Trump says he will have the US run all new ship insurance...but no guarantees on naval escorts.

Iran controls 10% to 12% of the global urea trade.

Urea is 46% nitrogen, it has a tendency to dehydrate the soil, so it has to be used where there is adequate water. Urea (46-0-0) has the lowest cost per pound of nitrogen compared to other single-element nitrogen fertilizers.

Now the price of food is going to go way up.

The Gulf region is home to some of the world’s largest fertilizer plants, and the Strait of Hormuz handles about one-third of the global trade for the nutrients. Prices were already high before the latest conflict in the Middle East erupted, and the fresh tensions come as Northern Hemisphere farmers are set to start applying the products to their fields.

A fertilizer price spike is not a short-term event. It translates directly into next season’s harvest—meaning the economic consequences could extend well beyond the duration of the conflict itself—unless, of course, it escalates into civilization-ending nuclear war.

🌒@EastCalling

German election Sunday, March 8, 2026

Opinion polls conducted in advance of the election on Sunday, March 8, of the new state parliament of Baden-Württemberg, point to a doubling of votes for the right-wing AfD to come in third with 18-20%, behind the Greens (24%) and the CDU (28%).

Baden-Württemberg is Germany’s second-largest state and the biggest center of productive Mittelstand companies--- These are the companies that historically drove German development and was an engine of development for the world economy.

The Mittelstand has been decimated in recent years.

Remember in 2025 in Germany:

ermany announced 125,000 industrial job cuts in 6 weeks. Putting that into perspective...

If the U.S. got hit at the same rate, that’s like ~300,000 factory jobs or ~500,000 total jobs gone in a month and a half.

Picture every factory worker in a state like South Carolina unemployed.
That’s the scale.
Recent layoffs announced in Germany:
Auto & Auto Supplier Layoffs (past 12 months):
• Volkswagen: 35,000
• Mercedes-Benz: 40,000
• Audi: 7,500
• Ford (Saarlouis): 2,900
• Daimler Truck: 5,000
• ZF Group: 14,000
• Bosch, Continental, Schaeffler (combined): 7,000

→ Total: 111,400 auto jobs impacted Steel & Heavy Industry Layoffs:
• Thyssenkrupp: 11,000 (≈40% of workforce) Rail & Transport Layoffs:
• Deutsche Bahn: 30,000
• DB Cargo (subsidiary): 5,000 Postal & Logistics Layoffs:
• Deutsche Post: 8,000 Banking & Finance Layoffs:
• Commerzbank: 3,900 Tech (Germany-specific cuts) Layoffs:
• SAP: 3,500 (10,000 global)

MAJOR implications globally from all of this - so don't brush it off as just German layoffs... And no one’s talking about it.

🌒@EastCalling

Don't worry...oil prices will go down. The US has a Strategic Petroleum Reserve that we refilled...

Remember, Trump said, “right up to the top again.”

Except, we didn't....we don't have the oil...

The reserve currently holds 415 million barrels—barely half its 714 million-barrel capacity—after the Biden administration drew it down heavily in 2022 to contain prices following 🇷🇺Russia’s invasion of 🇺🇦Ukraine.

Trump had cheap oil and a full year to replenish it. But Congress allocated less than $171 million of the $20 billion the energy secretary requested, and the administration made only token purchases.

Anyone know any good escorts? For oil tankers, I mean.

Is there anyone competent in the US leadership?

🌒@EastCalling

American intelligence services have established that Iran could potentially access highly enriched uranium buried after last year's strikes on a nuclear facility in Isfahan, the New York Times reports, citing officials.

Iran can gain access to uranium through a very narrow access point. It's unclear how quickly Iran will be able to move the uranium, which is in gas form and stored in containers,

the article says.

The publication's sources also stated that American intelligence services are constantly monitoring the Isfahan facility and have a high degree of confidence that they will be able to detect and respond to any attempt by the Iranian government or other groups to move the uranium.

Source: Izvestia
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I don't even know, what mental disorder makes NYT write things like this... 🤦🏻‍♀️

🌒@EastCalling

😱The Swedish Coast Guard showed footage of the capture of the cargo ship CAFFA with a Russian crew.

Earlier, the Russian embassy reported that it was in contact with the competent authorities. There were a total of 11 crew members on board, of whom 10 were Russian citizens.

The ship was heading to St. Petersburg under the flag of Guinea.

Source: Zvezda
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Capturing a civil vessel is, of course, a great deed of courage and honor. But I have to remind, that it was Russia that figured out how to combat Somalian pirates. What if such crews will appear on the vessels that do not want to be victims of piracy?

🌒@EastCalling

❗️Iran will not give up a single inch of its territory, said the country's President, Pazheshkian.

Earlier, Trump said that the map of Iran could change after a conflict.

Source: Раньше всех ну почти
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I'm inclined to think that the US would he the country that will change after the conflict. And I don't think Trump will like these changes.

🌒@EastCalling

On the night of March 8 (around 1:00 local time), an explosion occurred at the US embassy in Oslo. Norwegian police confirmed that an explosive device detonated at the entrance to the consular section

The building suffered minor damage, and thick smoke rose, but no one was injured.

Source: Новости со всего света
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🌒@EastCalling

This was written in 2024. Damn it, how could Trump have known all this back then? Is he some kind of Zhirinovsky?

Source: Коза кричала
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🌒@EastCalling