John

PRESIDENT MACRON SAYS FRANCE WILL INCREASE ITS NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARSENAL

With barely 14 months before the presidential elections in which he cannot stand again, Macron outlined a new approach to French nuclear doctrines.
Saying that France will now increase its warhead count aboard the SSBN force

an inspiration.
There will come a time in 30 years or so when history will look back on Trumpism as a stain and embarrassment that nobody will want to speak about. The fact he said that the relationship with the UK ‘isn’t what it was’ frankly comes as a welcome sign we’re putting distance between us

TRUMP BLAMES UKRAINE FOR LACK OF US WEAPONS

Almost unbelievably Trump let loose on Ukraine and Zelensky along with former President Biden for sending too many weapons to Ukraine leaving US arsenals depleted. He claimed that Zelensky was a showman like PT Barnum who had conned a weak Biden. This

URALS CRUDE NUDGES $80

Prices have spiked in the past week as you can clearly see. This is extremely annoying as prices had been crumbling and this will hand Russia a temporary life line.
It will take months to bring them
back down after the fighting stops.

DENMARK SAYS ITS WILLING TO FUND FRENCH EU+ DETERRENT POLICY

After Macrons speech yesterday Denmark is willing to assist in funding an EU+ nuclear deterrence policy. Others are expected to follow. It’s quite extraordinary how quickly the realities of the situation are dawning on EU+ nations.

They’re now speaking about it openly.

THE WAR THROUGH AMERICAN EYES
The loss of 18 service people in Kuwait has been confirmed when a missile hit an operations centre. COGS Dan Caine reminded everyone it was a major combat operation and loses were to be expected.
The military thinks it can sustain these operations for five weeks but

I wonder if Tommy Robinson will be arrested on arrival at Heathrow by 5 armed coppers? Probably not.

bsky.app/profile/byli...

IN GENERAL DOES
ANYONE THINK THIS WAR AGAINS IRAN IS GOING TO PLAN?

To me personally, in my own opinion, I think it’s gone horribly.
Iran will be badly damaged yes, set back, undoubtedly.
But what Iran has been able to do given the circumstance seems to me to have taken a lot of the American

TV entertainer and inexplicably Secretary of Defense/War/whatevs Pete Hegseth is currently holding a press conference that is slightly adjacent to reality.

Good news from Ukraine.Today is the first day of spring.We’ve lived through the hardest winter of the full-scale war

Living without electricity,heating,water supply in freezing weather was physically&emotionally draining

And yet,there were so many acts of kindness and light during those dark times

KUWAIT ARMY - كا • الجيش الكويتي @KuwaitArmyGHQ O ... O Translated from Arabic Show original • Statement No. 7 The spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense stated that several U.S. military aircraft crashed this morning, confirming the complete safety of their crews. He explained that the relevant authorities immediately initiated search and rescue procedures, whereby the crews were evacuated and transferred to the hospital to check on their health status and provide the necessary medical care, noting that their condition is stable. The official spokesperson added that direct coordination was conducted with the friendly U.S. forces regarding the circumstances of the incident, and joint technical measures were taken. He affirmed that the concerned authorities are following up on the investigations to determine the causes of the incident, calling for information to be obtained from its official sources.

“Several” US aircraft crashed this morning in Kuwait, according to Kuwait, AP and Reuters.

THE WAR RAGES ON IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Apologies for being late this morning, I had an 0555 flight to Brussels so it was all rather tight timings.
So the war goes on. Embassies hit, Saudi oil facilities, Iranian missile silos, on and on and on. There’s been some sort of self inflicted incident with US

France became the first country to make planned obsolescence a criminal offense. Any manufacturer that deliberately shortens a product's lifespan faces up to two years in prison, a €300,000 fine, or up to 5% of annual revenue.

No other country has gone this far, EU is now working on legislation.

BBC *finally* report on the dozens of Iranian schoolgirls killed — about 32h later.

Two senior Iranian Shiite religious leaders, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani and Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, have issued fatwas calling on Muslims worldwide to take revenge for the killing of Khamenei. (Iran International)

1/3

Trump: “We expect casualties with something like this.

“We have three, but we expect casualties, but in the end it’s going to be a great deal for the world.” (NBC)

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez: “Today more than ever, it is essential to remember that one can be against a hateful regime as is the case with the Iranian regime…and at the same time be against an unjustified, dangerous military intervention outside of international law.”

M42, the great Orion Nebula. This is a 2 hour exposure using a Seestar S30. I learned a masking technique for post processing that really helps to preserve nebula details…especially in the center where the long exposure tends to washout the details of the gas cloud. Thanks to the Photon Rookie on YouTube for sharing the technique. His skills are undeniably brilliant and he graciously shares them.

My first image using a new Seestar S30 Pro. Conditions were not ideal, but I think M42 came out nicely. I did some post processing in Siril and used a “masking” technique that I recently learned from Photon Rookie. #Seestar #Orion #nebula #stars #photography #astrophotography #nature #nightsky

A nice little open star cluster, M93 in Puppis. Somehow this has escaped my attention up until now. This was taken under a nearly full moon, with the light blue background discarded. #Astronomy #Astrophotography

The Sun with spots and the International Space Station passing in front of it in lower half.

On 1st March 2017 I captured the ISS transiting the Sun. 🔭 🧪 🎨 #astrophotography #SciArt #photography #StormHour #ThePhotoHour

3 US troops reported killed in Iran attack The Central Command announced the casualties.

The first US fatalities in Iran.

THE RHETORIC RAMPS UP AND THE CONSEQUENCES DEEPEN

Iran promised a level of revenge against America for the death of the Supreme Leader, head of the IRGC and the Defence Minister who were with him at the time. Trump said ‘they’d better not’.
I doubt that’s going to deter them. One of the surprising

WE ARE CLEARLY NOW, IN A WORLD OF LAWLESSNESS

Trump and his acolytes have drawn the curtains on the United Nations. Everyone of the many nations who supported the attack on Iran are party to that. It doesn’t matter that it’s Iran. It could be anywhere. I personally loathe the Iranian regime and

KHOMEINI IS DEAD - ISRAEL PUBLISHES PROOF OF DEATH

Israel has published evidence the supreme leader and mass
murderer of tens of thousands of Iranians is dead. Apparently in the first strike of the attack. How the Israelis got the body I can barely imagine.
Iran is denying everything.

SO TRUMPS IRAN WAR IS ALREADY OUT OF CONTROL

Central Dubai has been hit including right next to the Birj Khalifa - the world’s tallest building. Civilians have been killed in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Qatar, Iran has closed the straits of Hormuz the oil price has spiked, almost all of the Gulf states

The eighth military intervention and the second in Iran for the Trump administration in just a year.

The US is now at war.

If you believed him when he said, “no more foreign wars" then you were conned.

It's not like you weren't warned.

Trump’s former AI adviser Dean W Ball: “Nvidia, Amazon, Google will have to divest from Anthropic if Hegseth gets his way. This is simply attempted corporate murder. I could not possibly recommend investing in American AI to any investor; I could not possibly recommend starting an AI co. in the US.”

THE COST OF THE IRAN ATTACKS WILL BE PAID BY UKRAINE

Every Patriot missile the US uses to defend one of their bases, is one that will need replacing from
an already tight inventory.
The US will not supply them to paying customers if it needs them itself. That means more of Putin’s terror ballistic

TRUMP & NETHANYAHU START A WAR THEY CANNOT WIN

They may degrade Iranian capabilities, they may damage the leadership, they may destroy many targets but the one thing they don’t have is a strategic goal if they fail to change the regime. And even if they do they’re most likely inciting a civil war.