[Breitbart] Speaking on the subject of Venezuela’s collaboration with the U.S. under Rodríguez following the January arrest of dictator Nicolás Maduro, Sec. Burgum highlighted that the collaboration now extends to critical minerals in addition to oil and gas — pointing out that the South American nation has $500 billion worth of gold resources in addition to other critical minerals such as bauxite, aluminum, and coal
“Well, it started on Friday. In addition to the oil and gas we signed the first licenses for critical minerals to start flowing and precious minerals,” Sec. Burgum told Fox News. “On Friday, there was $100 million of gold that came from Venezuela to the United States. That’s for both industrial purposes as well as other commercial uses.”
The immediate reward for regime change is trade — a new tide that raises all boats.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] Two Iranian vessels departed China for Iran carrying ballistic missile fuel.
At some point that will burn very dramatically…
This was reported on March 8 by The Washington Post.
Loaded vessels belonging to Iran's state-owned Shipping Lines left a Chinese port this week that stores chemicals including sodium perchlorate, a key precursor to solid rocket fuel.
Shabdis and Barzin can carry up to 6,500 and 14,500 six-meter-long containers.
As American expert Isaac Cardon noted, China, given the escalating situation in the Middle East, could have found some excuse to keep the ships in port, but did not do so.
"This is a conscious political choice during an active war in which Beijing publicly calls for restraint," the publication quoted him as saying.
Former US Treasury Department official Miad Maleki expressed confidence that Iranian ships were transporting sodium perchlorate from China.
On March 7, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar announced that India had provided asylum to the Iranian Navy's IRIS Lavan. The crew had requested assistance due to technical difficulties, and India, as a humanitarian measure, provided it. This occurred three days before a US submarine sank the Iranian warship IRIS Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka
Posted by: badanov ||
03/09/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1841 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
“Submarines lived by a simple motto: There are two kinds of ships, submarines…and targets.”
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/09/2026 5:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Raw materials or parts for a factory that is now slag run by a factory overseer that is hiding from Mossad.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/09/2026 5:57 Comments ||
Top||
#6
A Russian media source, from the Washington Post
of March 7 [not 8, dateline issue?] reports:
left a Chinese port this week that stores chemicals can carry containers
Some guy [Miad Maleki] that might once have been somebody, and an expert [Isaac B. Kardon, Ph.D. (孔适海博士) is senior fellow for China studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. He is concurrently Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, and was formerly Assistant Professor at the U.S. Naval War College (NWC), where he served as a research faculty member in the China Maritime Studies Institute.] suggest the two ships might be carrying fuel and parts.
[Breitbart] Oil prices surged past $110 a barrel on Sunday evening, topping $100 for the first time in nearly four years, as the war in the Middle East entered its ninth day with no end in sight and the Strait of Hormuz remained effectively closed to tanker traffic.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, briefly topped $110 soon after markets opened Sunday evening, while West Texas Intermediate rose to $109.05. Both benchmarks were trading around $60 a barrel in early January.
President Trump on Sunday night sought to reassure Americans that oil prices would come down in short order.
“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” Trump said on Truth Social.
The surge follows a record weekly gain last week — Brent climbed 30 percent, its biggest weekly jump in six years — as the conflict that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 has choked off a waterway that normally handles about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.
The Hormuz closure is now forcing producers across the Gulf to throttle back output as onshore storage fills. Iraq has cut production by roughly 60 percent, to between 1.7 and 1.8 million barrels a day from about 4.3 million before the conflict, according to reports. Kuwait declared force majeure on oil exports over the weekend, and Abu Dhabi has begun trimming output at offshore fields as well. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is racing to reroute crude shipments to its Red Sea port of Yanbu via its East-West pipeline, though it lacks sufficient loading capacity and tankers there to fully compensate, Bloomberg News reported.
[IsraelTimes] Turkey plans to deploy six F-16 fighter jets to northern Cyprus today to bolster the defenses of the Turkish community there, broadcaster NTV says, citing a civil aviation official from the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
On Saturday, a Turkish defense ministry source said Turkey was considering the deployment of F-16 aircraft to Cyprus, among other steps being taken to ensure the security
[Facebook] “Go pray in the car. This isn’t a fvcking mosque, n*gga,”
Praying quietly out of the way is one thing. Blocking egress is a deliberate, active hazard whose purpose is to show all there to be conquered.
The same story on YouTube:
In this raw, unfiltered viral clip from New York City (March 2026), a frustrated bodega/store owner completely loses it after discovering a Muslim police officer unrolling a prayer mat right in the path to the bathroom—blocking access for customers. The heated confrontation escalates fast:
"This isn't a fvcking mosque, n*gga!"
"Go pray in your car!"Zero apologies, pure New York energy. Is this about private property rights, religious accommodation on duty, or something bigger like cultural clashes in diverse NYC? The debate is raging online—some side with the owner standing up for his business, others call it out as disrespectful or worse.Watch the full meltdown and decide for yourself!
And on X:
[New York Store Owner Confronts Praying Muslim Police Officer Blocking Access]
A heated confrontation between a New York store owner and a Muslim police officer went viral on March 7, 2026, after the officer was caught praying on a mat in the middle of a commercial space.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Gevorg Mirzayan
[REGNUM] US President Donald Trump continues to outline his desires for Iran. In addition to complete denuclearization, abandoning its missile program, and abandoning support for allied groups in the Middle East (the so-called Axis of Resistance), the White House chief also demands Iran's agreement to allow US participation in the selection of the country's new leader.
"I have to be involved in the appointment, just like I was with Delcy in Venezuela," Trump said, referring to Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, who became president with the blessing of the United States after the Americans kidnapped head of state Nicolas Maduro.
And now, after the US and Israel assassinated Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's new leader must also be chosen, or at least blessed, by the Americans. Trump has already stated that he has three suitable candidates for the post.
America believes it has the right to make such demands. Firstly, because things recently worked out in Venezuela. Instead of rallying the people to resist American aggression, Rodriguez, who came to power, turned the page in relations with Washington, prostrating herself to visiting American officials.
Secondly, because if the US started a war against Iran with the goal of regime change (and this goal was not only never concealed, but was even openly stated), then if they win, they want to participate in choosing the country's new leader. According to the principle of "woe to the vanquished."
Exactly what Russia hopes to do in Ukraine, when they finally reach actual victory.
Finally, the leader of a powerful state would seem to be interested in loyal regimes in key locations around the world. In this case, the United States, whose interests extend to the Middle East and adjacent regions, is interested in having leaders in key countries—Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Israel, Egypt—who, at a minimum, don't interfere with the United States, don't call it "Satan" or preach the slogan "Death to America."
“Please don’t notice us, President Trump!”
However, this is all theory. In practice, the statements made by the American authorities are unauthorized, illogical, and harmful to the interests of the United States.
Yes, everything worked out in Venezuela—but only at first glance. Delcy Rodriguez's government will be extremely unstable. Because she effectively came to power on American bayonets, Rodriguez has lost the support of a significant portion of the Chavista electorate. To them, she is a traitor.
Like Moses and Kristi Noem, she was never intended to enter the Promised Land, but to perform the important service of transitional deck clearing.
At the same time, Rodriguez hasn't received support from the Venezuelan opposition, because she's not one of them and never has been. Rodriguez can't win over voters with the slogan "I made peace with the US—and look what benefits we've all received" because there aren't any benefits, and there never will be.
The key benefit is a country not burdened by the heavy weight of Chavismo. Venezuelans are hardworking and clever — left in peace they’ll figure it out.
American companies are in no hurry to invest tens of billions of dollars in the devastated Venezuelan oil industry, and they are even less eager to invest in restoring the Venezuelan economy.
Therefore, Rodriguez will fail in the first democratic elections - and it is far from certain that she will be replaced by a pro-American president.
If America continues to treat Latin America, and especially Venezuela, as its property, the elections will be won by yet another left-wing populist who will be able to consolidate the population around slogans of freedom and national pride.
Yes, if the US defeats Iran, they will be able to participate in choosing a new leader—or at least veto the appointment of those they don't like. However, to do that, they need to win. And not by points (meaning, by forcing Iran to compromise), but by knockout. They need to inflict such a military defeat on Iran that it would be forced to sign a complete and unconditional surrender, after which Tehran would choose the leader the US brought in on a tank.
However, such a defeat is not expected at the moment—Iran has not only endured bombing for over a week, but is also actively fighting back. This means that any American appointee will be hanged on the first pole.
Finally, yes, the leader of a powerful state should be interested in appointing loyal regimes in key countries around the world. However, this appointment should not be made "from above." Not by order from Washington after a White House audition.
In a world where sovereignty is increasingly valued, neither the people nor the elite will accept such an approach. No one is going to sit and wait for Trump to call and say, "You're hired." Or "You're no longer suitable for us; appoint so-and-so, or we'll kidnap you or bomb your country."
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump’s administration has bypassed US Congress using an emergency authority to expedite the sale of more than 20,000 bombs to Israel worth around $650 million, two US officials familiar with the sale said.
In a late Friday statement, the US State Department said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that an emergency existed that required an immediate sale to Israel and waived the congressional review requirements for the sale.
The weapons package, which included 12,000 BLU-110A/B general purpose 1,000-pound bomb bodies that Israel had requested, comes a week after the United States and Israel began their joint air war against Iran, Washington’s biggest military operation since the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Such a contrast to the Biden Politburo, which deliberately slow walked requests with malign intent.
**BLU-110A/B** is a **1,000-pound (454 kg) general-purpose aerial bomb body** used by the United States and its allies, including Israel. It is a variant of the **Mark 83 bomb family**, designed for high explosive blast and fragmentation effects. The **A/B modification** includes a **heat-resistant thermal coating** to prevent accidental detonation in high-temperature environments, such as on runways or in storage facilities.
The BLU-110A/B can be used as an unguided bomb or converted into a precision-guided munition by attaching guidance kits like the **JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition)**, **Paveway II**, or **GBU-15**. This allows it to be delivered from over 15 miles away with high accuracy.
The U.S. Department of State approved an **emergency $151.8 million sale of 12,000 BLU-110A/B bomb bodies to Israel** on **March 6, 2026**, citing an urgent national security need. This sale was fast-tracked under **Section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act**, waiving the usual congressional review due to the ongoing U.S.-Israel military campaign against Iran.
The **principal contractor** for the sale is **Repkon USA**, the U.S. subsidiary of the Turkish defense company **REPKON**. The bombs will be sourced from existing U.S. military stockpiles and supplemented by production.
This munition is central to Israel’s long-range strike operations, particularly in targeting Iranian military infrastructure, air defenses, missile storage, and command nodes, supporting sustained air warfare in a high-tempo conflict.
No JDAMs?
Wonder what they're going to pack it with?
[CdrSalamander] While the once-great Royal Navy continues to scour the piers for enough duct tape and bailing wire to get a destroyer underway, it appears that—literally—the entire French Navy is getting underway.
As she has done before, she is moving east in response to another crisis in Lebanon where there are a lot of French citizens and the general disquiet in the Eastern Mediterrenean. This time, as a side-show to the Israeli-American conflict with Iran, as it appears a final move is going to be made against Hezbollah by the Lebanese.
How much of the fleet? Well, it appears that if it can leave the pier, it is going.
Via Cap-Hornier,
Nearly the entire fleet is at sea: 19 of the 23 main surface fleet ships.
The CdG, 3 PHA, 13 frigates, and 2 replenishment ships.
The only ships of the French Navy in the naval bases are those in technical stoppage. 2 FREMM, one FLF, and one replenishment ship
This is unsustainable, for any navy.
Via Xavier Vavasseur at Naval News,
The current geopolitical situation in the Middle East is putting a lot of pressure on the French Navy.
FREMM frigate Languedoc is tasked with the protection of Cyprus. In addition, France announced that two surface combatants would join the European mission ASPIDES in the Red Sea. One of them could be FREMM frigate Provence which Naval News boarded during DIMDEX 2026 in Qatar in January.
All Mistral-class LHDs are currently deployed: Dixmude set sails on 17 February 2026 for the Indo-Pacific as part of the “JEANNE D’ARC 2026” mission. It is unclear if the LHD is still in the Mediterranean or closer to Djibouti. First-in-class ship Mistral is currently participating to NATO exercise COLD RESPONSE 26 in Northern Europe, and Tonnerre just set sails today.
According to local eyewitness, most “first rank combatants” have left Toulon naval base and most piers in the naval base are empty.
There is a lesson here—a more exaggerated version of the US Navy’s “well, the Nimitz’s last deployment wasn’t really her last…” news earlier this week.
Yes, you can on paper have a significant navy, but is she for show, or for fight? You can sortie your entire fleet…once…but then you are all out of options. They do have to come back, but if your mission is not done, who will replace them onstation?
What readiness and maintenance bill will need to be paid when the fleet does come back? We all know that when everyone goes to sea, not everything—from a readiness point of view—should have gone to sea.
What boy doesn't want to make his Mum proud. Especially if they are married. Besides, everyone could use some air defense practice in a littoral environment.
#6
It's just the French being the French. Something big is happening, and they want to show they're important. Which is fine IMO. Unlike the British, their ships can actually move and fire, and they are reasonably close at hand.
[NYPOST] Mojtaba Khamenei — the son of slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — has been tapped as the regime's next supreme leader, Iranian state media announced Sunday.
The 56-year-old new leader — who has been dismissed by President Trump as a ''lightweight'' — was chosen by the nation's elite clerical panel known as the Assembly of Experts just eight days after his 86-year-old father was killed in US-Israeli strikes on his Tehran compound during Operation Epic Fury.
Other strikes in the joint military attack also killed around 40 other high-ranking Islamic Republic leaders.
Mojtaba's wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country's theocracy, was also killed in the strikes as were other family members.
''By a decisive vote, the Assembly of Experts, appointed Ayatollah Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei as the third Leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,'' the assembly said in a statement.
While Mojtaba has been the favored successor of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Trump condemned the likely appointment as ''unacceptable'' for the US and vowed it would not bring an end to the war.
[IsraelTimes] Successor and son of Iran’s slain supreme leader will ‘have no choice’ but to expand repression, even if war ends, official says, warning world ‘will miss the era of his father’, a move regional officials say is a direct rebuke to US President Donald Trump, who had declared the son “unacceptable.”
Analysts say the choice of Mojtaba, a deeply hardline cleric whose wife, mother and other family members were also killed in US–Israeli strikes, sends an unequivocal message: Iran’s leadership has rejected any prospect of compromise to preserve the system and sees no path forward except confrontation, revenge and endurance.
According to insiders, Mojtaba will face immense internal and external strain from a disaffected population and an escalating conflict, but is expected to move swiftly to consolidate power.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2026 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[1862 views]
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#1
He’s a future trivia question.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/09/2026 5:54 Comments ||
Top||
#2
want him called NEPOtollah
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
03/09/2026 9:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Two weeks max before Mojtaba "Mojito" Khamenei is either drone-zapped, or shuffles off to Russia or Switzerland. His replacement will be someone with less of a fancy for nuclear weapons.
In the meantime, someone from the Dept. of Pranks and Mischief should post a copy of his W-2s from Mossad.
#10
Why would they do that? In the hopes that israel goes looking for a ghost while ignoring the real decision makers.
A fiendishly clever plot. But it assumes that Israel is whacking top guys serially, one after another. Makes more sense to go after a handful in parallel. You can whack them now or whack them later, and you never know when you might get lucky.
OK, Mossad might be wasting resources proving a dead guy is dead, but that is useful knowledge and a big media victory.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] The United States of America struck the Shajara Tayiba Girls' School in Minab. This statement was made by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on March 8.
The US and Israel have been striking Iran since February 28. On the first day of the attacks, a direct missile strike hit a girls' school in Minab. As a result, 165 people were killed, including 150 students. Most of the victims were girls between the ages of 7 and 12.
"They (the US – Ed.) have attacked so many places, including schools and hospitals. And there is every evidence that this school was attacked by an American fighter jet," the diplomat told NBC.
Araghchi also stressed that it is absurd to suggest that US President Donald Trump's claims that Iran was allegedly responsible for the attack on the girls' primary school could be true.
Of course Iran cannot possibly be at fault, even though they were the ones who put the school at risk by placing it next to a military target.
On March 6, US investigators admitted that the strike on a girls' elementary school in Minab, Iran, was carried out by American forces. Investigators have not yet reached a definitive conclusion. Later, on March 7, US President Donald Trump blamed Iran for the attack on the school, claiming that the Iranian side was very inaccurate in its use of munitions.
When asked by reporters about possible U.S. military involvement in the strike, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared confused and unable to provide a concrete answer. He later responded that the U.S. military would not have deliberately targeted an educational institution. Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged on March 4 that the U.S. military was investigating the incident.
The Islamic Republic's Permanent Representative to the UN, Amir Saeed Iravani, blamed the US and Israel for the deaths of the students. He called the tragedy not just an act of aggression, but a crime against humanity.
The Iranian Foreign Minister promised that the attack on the school would not go unanswered. He pointed out that the strike took place during daylight hours and called it a crime against the Iranian people. Local media published photos of 165 graves of the attack's victims.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
