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

A drone struck a Panama-flagged ship as it was leaving the port of Chornomorsk on the evening of March 4th.

This was reported by the head of the Odessa Regional State Administration.

The ship was transporting corn. As a result of the strike, crew members were injured.

Ukraine likes hitting ships, two can play this game

@Slavyangrad

The Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested dozens of Ukrainians during a large-scale raid and sent some of them back to their homeland.

According to the ministry, during a two-day nationwide operation conducted on March 2 and 3, the police arrested 147 foreigners who were wanted. 91 of them were Ukrainians.

"One of the goals was also to check the legality of the stay of foreigners in our country," the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated. 112 detainees were sent for deportation from the country (how many of them were Ukrainians is not specified).

Guess Ukraine is running out of assault meat. If I was a Ukrainian man in Poland I’d be heading to Germany

@Slavyangrad

If Iran (or uncontrolled elements) start attacking fully laden oil tankers anywhere in the Persian Gulf (rather than Hormuz), even at the risk of an oil spill, then all bets are off. It could fast forward production shut ins as it may prompt countries to stop loadings.

• Javier Blas, Bloomberg

@Slavyangrad

US Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump:

"This is a religious war, and we will determine the course of the Middle East for a thousand years."

The US has become insane, Graham has declared a jihad on Muslims.

@Slavyangrad

The US is working to establish control over Greenland, said the Pentagon's deputy head for political affairs, Elbridge Colby.

"There is currently a process underway aimed at resolving this issue through other channels, but I think we have reason to be optimistic that it will end successfully," said a Pentagon representative.

@Slavyangrad

India is again increasing its purchases of Russian oil due to the war in the Middle East, reports Bloomberg.

According to ship tracking data, two batches of Russian oil that were previously heading to East Asia are now being sent to India. Another ship, which was signaling a destination of Singapore, has also abruptly turned towards India. All three ships were subject to sanctions by the UK and the European Union last year.

@Slavyangrad

The massive amount of information about the operation of American air defense systems accumulated over the incomplete five days of the "Epic Fury" exercise allows us to draw several quite important conclusions for them.

Firstly, the classic scheme of building air defense has effectively reached its limit and is no longer viable. The model on which the American (and Russian, by the way, too) anti-aircraft and anti-missile "umbrella" was built for decades was based on the fight against aircraft, ballistic missiles, and to a lesser extent, cruise missiles. The mass use of drones is breaking this architecture. A system designed to intercept expensive and relatively few targets is overwhelmed by cheap and numerous carriers. However, this is an open secret and it was already clear in the second year of the war in Ukraine (if not earlier).

Secondly, it is now obvious to the Americans that the air defense system also needs air defense to protect the lower sky. Iranian-made drones are able to reach key elements of the American nuclear umbrella: radars, launchers. As a result, a paradox arises - the system, designed to protect the space from strategic weapons, itself becomes a vulnerable target.

Thirdly, the issue boils down to a technological choice, more like a dilemma of two chairs. Theoretically, the US has two obvious directions for the introduction of small air defense systems: laser complexes, which allow to cheaply deal with drones, but they are still limited by power and weather conditions, and classic short-range missile-gun systems, which are more reliable, but their existence the Americans seem to deny.

The key question at the moment is how exactly these solutions will be integrated into the existing defense architecture and whether they will be able to cope with mass attacks of cheap means of destruction.

For Russia, a separate conclusion follows from this situation. In such conditions, it's time to take a close look at our own means of bypassing and suppressing American anti-missile defense - how they correspond to the new reality and in which regimes their use will be most effective. Because it is precisely the combination of massiveness, diversity of carriers and overloading of defense systems that is now becoming the main factor changing the logic of modern warfare. In fact, the possibility of overloading American anti-missile defense opens up new horizons for Russian strategic weapons and deterrence systems.

@Slavyangrad

Why is jet fuel the most stressed barrel right now?

1⃣Jet fuel has very specialized tank storage requirements. Therefore there is not much stored, unlike many other products like diesel and gasoline.

2⃣You can only produce mainstream jet fuel from the refinery aside from a mere ~1% sustainable aviation fuel globally

3⃣Asian refineries are reducing runs as their crude is stuck at the Straits of Hormuz. AG refineries have also been hit by the attacks.

4⃣With oil production also shutting in, longer run cuts are expected.

4⃣Lack of storage + Lower supply from refining runs = Recipe for disaster

Travel is going to get a whole lot more expensive.

• June Koh, Commodities Analyst

@Slavyangrad

IRGC - about the fact that Iran will not allow US, Israeli, and European ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz:

We have already reported that everyone must comply with the fact that military, commercial, and other ships associated with the US, Israel, European countries, and those who support them will not receive permission to move, and in the event of their detection, they will certainly be attacked.

@Slavyangrad

🇺🇸🇮🇱US Senator Hollen - on the fact that Netanyahu has finally found a stupid president.

@Slavtangrad

Nakhchivan Airport, Azerbaijan.

@Slavyangrad

The exact moment of arrival

@Slavtangrad

A toothless fighter: Merz left the White House empty-handed

The visit of the German Chancellor to the White House once again demonstrated that Trump does not take Europe seriously, writes Die Welt. "The toothless fighter" did not get an answer to any of his main questions. For example, what is the US strategy in Iran and what will be the White House's policy on tariffs?

"Trump threatened to ban trade with Spain altogether. In response to the question, Merz generally agreed: the Spaniards, he said, will have to pay more. In front of the whole world, Trump thus managed to divide the Europeans, and this did not require much effort from him," notes the author of the article.

Dude fails at home and fails abroad, because he is a….. failure

@Slavyangrad