Eclecticity

Strong Winds And Cloud. 9°C at Sancton Hill. Oilseed in flower.

Look at what Iran has been hitting since Feb. 28: radar systems, SATCOM terminals, tankers, and now an AWACS. That's not random. It's a systematic attack on the infrastructure that makes U.S. air power function. Iran's running an asymmetric counter-air campaign. A 🧵.

A little video of our fox this afternoon. #foxoftheday @BBCSpringwatch

Spring stroll

HUGE NEWS: A judge just halted this merger!

this person, speaking incoherently & vaingloriously to a gathering of like-minded MAGA followers, certainly seems to be the genuine article; but when one reads mainstream accounts of the man, as in an article in today's NY Times about T***p & the Iran War, the portrait of T***p has been airbrushed, "normalized." not a ranting ignorant reckless person but an intelligent if erratic person waging war for legitimate reasons. we see it for ourselves: how mainstream media has made T***p possible, even palatable. shame.

my review in today's @thetimes of excellent new book on Russia's descent into madness by @marcbennetts1

In just one day, ordinary Hungarians have donated more than 630 000 euros to Captain Bence Szabo. The detective exposed to journalists how the secret service allegedly started operations against the Tisza party, now he is without a job 4fund.com/62pmv8

🎇🎇I’m going to Sarasota protest later but earlier my Cuban neighbor was unable to get on the Venice Island protest because it was so backed up ….so we waited because I wanted to get some footage I have never ever ever seen a protest like this in Venice. they were literally all over the entire bridge down BOTH sides , the main road and then Venice Avenue all the way down. 🔴➡️🔵Literally thousands .. unheard of in sleepy 2:1 Rep/Dem red Venice Sorry for the bumpy footage, but I was videoing in fist pumping at the same time #NoKings

Fact checking fraud claims: Heritage Foundation documented 1,620 cases of voter fraud from 1982-2025, including 100 cases of noncitizens voting. That's about 0.000008% of more than 1.3 billion votes cast in presidential elections in that time. @YLindaQiu nytimes.com/2026/03/27/us/…

That the sorry state of affairs 🇺🇸 these days. @FareedZakaria

👋Russians are losing their minds and literally climbing the walls over the country’s failing internet: “I don’t understand what the benefits of this state are. Personally, I see only downsides.” Since early March, mobile internet in central Moscow has been regularly shut down. Navigation, payment terminals, and even paid public toilets stopped working. Mobile internet outages were reported not only in Moscow but also in other major cities, including Saint Petersburg. Many regions across Russia have been experiencing regular internet disruptions for nearly a year.

🇺🇦🇪🇺 Kallas spelling out exactly what’s at stake here, no illusions left "We have to remember that countries want to be in NATO because they don't want Russia to attack or invade them. If Putin gets Donbas, the fortress will fall, and then they will definitely go on to take over all of Ukraine. And if Ukraine falls, other countries will also be in danger" - Kaja Kallas 🇪🇪 That’s a WARNING, not just for Ukraine but for everyone watching, this doesn’t stop at one border And with Ukraine holding strong and pushing back, it’s clear why stopping it there matters so much right now

Iran appears to have preempted a U.S. ground forces operation by striking several U.S. Navy transport vessels (LCUs) and GCC bases and locations where US assault troops were being assembled.

200 helium containers are stranded in the Persian Gulf right now. Each one holds 41,000 liters cooled to -269°C. The containers have no refrigeration. No compressor, no cooling loop. Insulation is all that stands between the cargo and ambient heat, and it buys 35 to 48 days. After that, the liquid boils, the pressure valve opens, and the helium vents to atmosphere. Re-liquefying it requires a specialized plant. Most ports do not have one. Qatar's North Field supplied 33% of the world's helium as a byproduct of cryogenic separation at its LNG plants. On March 2, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. Spot prices surged 70 to 100 percent. EUV lithography requires 99.9999% purity helium for wafer cooling and no current substitute exists. The fifth helium shortage since 2006 has just begun.

BREAKING: Qatar just signed a 10-year defence co-production agreement with Ukraine. Not an advisory partnership. Not a training exchange. Co-production facilities. Joint defence industry projects. Technological partnerships between companies. Signed by the Chiefs of General Staff of both nations on March 28 per Zelensky’s verified account and Qatar News Agency. Qatar shares the world’s largest natural gas field with Iran. The North Field / South Pars reservoir holds 1,800 trillion cubic feet of gas per the IEA. Two-thirds lies in Qatari waters. Ten days ago, Iran hit Ras Laffan Industrial City, the facility that processes all the gas from Qatar’s side of their shared field per CNN and QatarEnergy. Seventeen percent of Qatar’s LNG capacity is offline for three to five years. Fourteen percent of helium exports are cut. Force majeure declared. Iran bombed the other half of its own shared gas field. And now Qatar is building weapons factories with the country that mastered killing the drone Iran used to do it. The drone is the Shahed-136. Iran designed it. Russia industrialised it. Russia fired it at Ukrainian cities for four years. Ukraine developed the $2,100 Sting interceptor that kills it at a 70 percent rate. Zelensky told The National he can deliver 1,000 interceptors per day. The 10-year deal ensures Qatar will not just buy these weapons. It will manufacture them on Qatari soil with Ukrainian technology. This is the first time in the history of this war that a Gulf state has committed to building the production line, not just purchasing the product. Saudi Arabia signed a defence cooperation agreement on March 27. The UAE agreed to security cooperation on March 28. But Qatar went further. Co-production means factories. Factories mean sovereignty over supply. Qatar will no longer depend on anyone for the weapon that protects the gas field that powers 30 percent of the world’s helium. Zelensky met Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani. He updated them on Russia’s ongoing attacks and its cooperation with the Iranian regime. He told them air defence remains Ukraine’s absolute priority. Then he asked for what he has asked every Gulf leader this week: Patriot missiles that the Gulf possesses and that Ukraine desperately needs to stop Russian missiles that use the same guidance components from the same Chinese rare earth processing chain. The exchange is now visible across three countries in 48 hours. Ukraine gives cheap interceptors and expertise. Gulf states give expensive missiles and investment. Ukraine gets what it needs for Russia. The Gulf gets what it needs for Iran. And the drone that connects both wars, the Shahed that Iran designed and Russia upgraded, becomes the mechanism through which two separate conflicts merge into a single weapons economy. Trump called Zelensky “the greatest salesman on Earth.” In 48 hours, Zelensky signed three defence agreements across three Gulf capitals, secured a 10-year industrial partnership, deployed over 200 specialists, and positioned Ukraine as the sole provider of the one capability America’s $3.9 million Patriot cannot replicate: cheap, high-volume, battle-proven drone interception at $2,100 per unit. The country America said it did not need just locked in a decade of Gulf defence contracts while America raids Swiss accounts to cover its own interceptor shortfall. Full analysis - open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

Maternity ward in Odesa. Again. The hardest was evacuating newborn twins on ventilators. When Russian Shaheds attacked, doctors moved 33 pregnant women and 19 newborns to safety in a bomb shelter. Then helped put out the fire.

“It’s Ukrainian housewives. They have 3-D printers in the kitchen, and they produce parts for drones. This is not innovation.” -Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger

HAPPENING NOW: A HUGE crowd has gathered in London, England for a protest against the far right in coordination with the No Kings day protests in the US

Former vice president of Germany’s BND: All Western intelligence agencies underestimate Ukrainian resistance ukrinform.net/rubric-polytic…