Europe starting to lose LNG cargoes to Asia. The LNG tanker BW Brussels, initially bound for France, has now diverted to Asia.

Someone was willing to pay more $$$

@Slavyangrad

Trump's advisors are concerned about the operation against Iran and urge to "declare victory" sooner, reports CNN.

According to the TV channel, supporters of this view fear that the campaign could escalate into a protracted war without clear goals and with minimal "electoral benefits".

They argue that the US will inevitably suffer new military losses. Moreover, the war in the Middle East has led to chaos in the stock markets and a rise in energy prices, which could affect voters' sentiment.

One of the interviewees, sharing his thoughts, called the continuation of the war a "political risk without any 'buts'," and believes that it remains to "hope that nothing will go too wrong"

@Slavyangrad

Pete Hegseth said this was "the first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since WWII" (which is false, but that's beside the point), so I decided to look at what happened in WW2 and... this might surprise no-one: turns out the Nazis were more humane than the Americans.

Probably the most abject part here is that the warship had many survivors - 32 to be precise (https://apnews.com/article/sri-lanka-iran-middle-east-ship-sinking-69191dde43154c5176a8aeacc9128748) - and the U.S. made zero effort to rescue them, despite it being required by the laws of naval warfare and simply being the honorable thing to do.

It took little Sri-Lanka, with its very modest means - especially compared to the $1 trillion US defense budget - to do the honourable thing and launch a (successful) rescue operation.

Even the literal Nazis, during WW2, rescued the survivors of ships their U-boats sank. It was considered a matter of basic honour.

The history of this is actually interesting: the Nazis rescued survivors all the way until the so-called Laconia Incident in 1942 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident).

The Laconia was a British troopship sunk by U-156, a German U-boat, off the West African coast. Right after the sinking, the Nazis immediately began rescuing over 400 survivors, broadcasting - as was common practice - in plain English their position on open radio channels to all Allied powers nearby, so they wouldn't get attacked during the rescue.

That's when a US B-24 "Liberator" bomber attacked the submarine anyway, even though all the rescued survivors were on its foredeck. The B-24 killed dozens of Laconia's survivors with bombs and strafing attacks, forcing U-156 to cast into the sea the remaining survivors that she had rescued and crash dive to avoid being destroyed.

The American B-24 pilots mistakenly reported they had sunk U-156, and were awarded medals for bravery...

This event completely changed Nazi policy on this matter: Karl Dönitz, commander of the U-boat fleet, issued the "Laconiarefehl" - the Laconia Order - forbidding U-boats from rescuing survivors, because the risk to the submarine was now too high.

In other words, the Americans during WW2 essentially forced the Nazis to abandon survivors - from the allied side (!) - at sea.

Dönitz at least had an excuse.

• Arnaud Bertrand

@Slavyangrad

Propaganda includes manipulating the language to differentiate between 'us' and 'them'. We intervene, they invade. We are assertive, they are aggressive etc.

• Glenn Diesen

@Slavyangrad

🤡 The European Union is ready to defend Spain's interests if the US stops trading with it, said the head of the European Council, António Costa

Earlier, Trump threatened Madrid with the termination of trade relations because Spain refused to provide the US with military bases for an operation in Iran.

@Slavyangrad

Japanese oil refiners have asked the government to release oil from national reserves amid supply constraints due to Middle East tensions.

Getting a bit desperate… fast. Seems a bit early to start the

@Slavyangrad

"87 bodies found":
Rescuers have found the bodies of 87 dead sailors from a frigate sunk off Sri Lanka.

"Members of the Sri Lankan Navy have recovered 87 bodies from the water. 32 surviving crew members were taken to a local hospital, with one of them in the intensive care unit. According to Iranian authorities, there were about 130 sailors on board the frigate."

@Slavyangrad

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard: Our naval forces hit an American oil tanker in the northern Gulf, and it is currently on fire.

According to international laws, the passage and transit through the Strait of Hormuz during wartime will be in our hands.

We targeted Kurdish bases in Iraqi Kurdistan with 3 missiles.

• NayaforIraq

@Slavyangrad

—❗️🇱🇧 NEW: Some kind of fire is seen in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Jieh, Lebanon

@Middle_East_Spectator

@Slavyangrad

The cause of yesterday's blackout across Iraq was the disruption of gas supplies from Iran to a power station in Basra, according to Xinhua, citing the country's Ministry of Electricity.

This led to a rapid loss of 3,000 megawatts, which caused a "power failure" at the station and the shutdown of several generator units.

Iraq, which has long suffered from chronic electricity shortages due to decades of conflicts, is still largely dependent on Iranian gas to power its energy system, especially during the summer period.

@Slavyangrad