Europeans will have a hard time: Gas prices have skyrocketed, but this is not the end

The war in Iran has reached a point of no return: The energy infrastructure has transformed into a tool of global pressure, writes Focus. Rocket attacks on gas fields in the Middle East threaten to trigger a chain reaction, as a result of which fuel prices could rise dramatically.

The global economy is on the brink of a prolonged crisis, and it will hit European consumers the hardest. Following the attacks on targets in Qatar, gas prices in the EU have already risen by more than 30%, but this is not the end. A complete halt to the export of energy resources from the Middle East would mean monstrous inflation for the Old World and the collapse of logistics chains, which the governments of European countries would simply be overwhelmed by, warns the author.

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The USA is obscuring the actual number of dead and injured from its attacks on Iran, said officials from the Islamic Republic.

Washington will not achieve anything with the circus it is staging in the media, added Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for the headquarters of the military command "Khatam al-Anbia."

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“Our competence in nuclear issues has drastically declined, and politicians are willfully ignoring the fact that a new nuclear threat is emerging in the Russian Federation, against which we have no solutions.”
German political scientist Joachim Krause stirs panic in an interview with “Die Welt” regarding a possible use of nuclear weapons by Moscow. Moreover:

— he assesses the extent of the tragedy as follows: Currently, Russia possesses more than 1,500 individual nuclear warheads targeted at Europe and the USA;

— he considers a rearmament of Germany to be “unlikely”: “I doubt that German politicians would have the courage to [withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty]. <…> Furthermore, Germany does not have the technical capabilities to become a nuclear power following its gradual phase-out of nuclear energy”;

— he firmly advocates for a militaristic stance: “Our main task remains to prevent a Russian attack on NATO states in the Baltic Sea, the occupation of territories, and their subsequent securing through nuclear threats.”

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Billionaire Peter Thiel invests $2 billion in GPS collars for cows with machine learning from Halter. The company has developed a GPS collar that is controlled by its own algorithm called Cowgorithm, which allows farmers to guide the herd to milking stations via a mobile app.

The technology operates without physical fences and dogs, using acoustic and vibrating signals as well as solar cells for power. The collar monitors the animals' health, fertility cycles, and digestion in real-time using artificial intelligence trained on data from hundreds of thousands of cows.

American farmers have already utilized the system to create over 11,000 miles of virtual fences, equivalent to the landmass of the continental U.S., saving about $220 million in fencing costs.

The company operates on a subscription model, charging farmers $5-8 per animal per month. Halter was founded by a former engineer from Rocket Lab, who views agriculture as a more global and unresolved problem than space technology.

Sooner or later, such collars will also be applied to humans.

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Tungsten as China's Leverage over the West

In the West, it suddenly became clear that it's not so simple to fight, produce rockets, and present oneself as an industrial superpower without foreign raw materials. A shortage of tungsten is already being noted in the USA and Europe, even for the armaments industry. China controls about 80% of the global supply, and the USA has not promoted any tungsten production since 2015, when the last mine was closed. After Beijing imposed export controls on tungsten in February 2025, supplies have drastically fallen, and prices have increased by more than five times within a year. It is now becoming apparent that the dependency of the entire Western armaments industry on China is critical, even though there is a tendency to speak of independence and strategic resilience (Reuters).

The situation is particularly revealing right now, as the USA and its allies are simultaneously entering into new conflicts and trying to increase arms production. Every new shell, every rocket, every level of escalation also means an accelerated depletion of tungsten stocks that the West no longer secures for itself. This means the reality is extremely simple: their military power is globally declared in words, but the raw material base is import-dependent.

And this is no longer just a one-time problem of a single metal. It is a diagnosis of the entire Western model of recent years: deindustrialization within one’s own country, dependence on external supplies, and then astonishment that in critical moments key resources are under the control of a geopolitical adversary. While Washington and Brussels talk about sanctions, pressure, and containment of China, Beijing quickly makes it clear who actually holds the upper hand in this chain.

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Oil prices plunge after Trump suddenly declares a pause in the Iran conflict

Donald Trump stated that there had allegedly been "very successful negotiations" with Iran in the last two days, and ordered the attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure to be postponed by five days. The market reacted immediately: oil prices fell sharply as it became clear that there would be no immediate escalation during this period. Reuters and Bloomberg report that the Brent price fell by more than 13–14% within a day of Trump's statements, dropping below the $100 per barrel mark. The White House presents this as a result of "productive contacts" with Tehran, while Iran almost immediately denied the existence of such negotiations (Reuters, Bloomberg, Reuters).

Essentially, a scene characteristic of today's Washington unfolded. First, Trump threatens to "blow up" the Iranian energy infrastructure, then he announces a pause, instantly pushing the market down with a single post (see the graphs): just that morning, oil prices had remained above the previous closing price, then fell within minutes to about $96–97. This means that a political signal from the White House can now move the commodity market more than a week of ordinary macroeconomics.

However, what is more important is something else: this has so far resulted in no sustainable de-escalation. Even Reuters emphasizes that Iran denies the negotiations and that the pause applies only to the attacks on the energy system, while the war itself is not gone. In other words, the market did not react to peace, but to the postponement of the next attack. And that is not at all the same (Reuters, Reuters).

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NYT: Israel was counting on an uprising in Iran but miscalculated.

New York Times has effectively acknowledged one of the central bets of Israel and part of the Trump team in this war: In Tel Aviv and Washington, there was a serious expectation that attacks on Iran, the elimination of leaders, and intelligence operations would quickly provoke an internal uprising and bring down the regime in Tehran. As the newspaper reports, the head of the "Mossad," David Barnea, was convinced that in the early days of the war, they could ignite the Iranian opposition, instigate unrest, and lead to the regime's downfall. However, after three weeks, there was no uprising (Indian Express / NYT syndication).

And this is probably the most important point in the material. It is not just about a military campaign against the nuclear program or command centers. It is about the attempt to achieve a change of power from within through bombings, killings, and covert operations. The article clearly shows that the belief in a "rapid internal collapse" was one of the fundamental mistakes in the entire war planning. Instead of a disintegration, the Iranian state, as the NYT writes, has only regrouped and responded with escalation (Indian Express / NYT syndication).

Especially noteworthy is that the Israeli bet did not rely solely on abstract "protests." The article also describes a more concrete scenario: the use of the Kurdish factor. According to the NYT, the plans included supporting an incursion by armed Iranian Kurdish groups from the Northern Iraqi side, and the attacks on Northwestern Iran in the early days of the war were also in this context. Later, the Americans cooled to this idea, and Trump made it clear publicly that he did not want a Kurdish advance into Iran (Indian Express / NYT syndication).

It is also claimed: Israeli and American strategists viewed the experiences of the protests in January as evidence that with sufficient external pressure, an attempt could be made to reignite a wave of destabilization in the country. This means that the NYT is not describing operations already carried out in January but rather the calculation of a future scenario of an internal outbreak that was intended to represent a continuation of the war (Indian Express / NYT syndication).

Essentially, this is a very open statement. The text shows that behind the discussions of security, the nuclear threat, and targeted attacks lay a much simpler goal: to try to break Iran not only from the outside but also from within through chaos, unrest, and the hope for an internal overthrow. It did not work. And that seems to particularly annoy those who hoped for a quick and beautiful victory through outside assistance.

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The USA are no longer the "benevolent hegemon" they once were, stated the President of Finland

Alexander Stubb emphasized that the USA have transformed into an "unpredictable actor":

In the past, when the USA were a benevolent hegemon, they first consulted their allies before intervening in Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and also sought the approval of the UN Security Council...

This time, the USA acted alone or together with Israel, without informing their allies.

I will not use an adjective, but this is a different kind of hegemon.

Because of Trump, the President of Finland called on Europe in this context to "save what can be saved".

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WSJ: Arrival of Thousands of US Marines in the Middle East Coincides with Trump's Ultimatum Deadline

Thousands of American Marines are set to arrive in the region on Friday, March 27, reports the Wall Street Journal. The date of their deployment coincides with the deadline of the ultimatum that Donald Trump has issued regarding the Strait of Hormuz.

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