Summary

Houthis enter the war: Houthis launch their first missile barrage on Israel since Operation Epic Fury. Red Sea shipping could once again be under direct threat.

Serious US casualties in Saud base assault: Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan air base in a Friday attack that wounded at least 15 troops: AP. Late-night strike targeted Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant (for third time of war).

Gulf states under sustained fire, casualties mount: Six wounded in missile strike on Abu Dhabi; Bahrain intercepts waves of missiles and drones near the United States Fifth Fleet base; Kuwait reports damage to Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port and Shuwaikh Port.

US expending billions on Operation Epic Fury: “Battle damage and replacement of losses over the first three weeks of the war likely costs roughly $1.4 billion to $2.9 billion”: WSJ. 

*  *  *

Houthis Enter the War

The Houthis have finally entered the war, greatly raising the stakes on what’s becoming a multi-front engagement, given Israel and Hezbollah have already been locked in a ground war in Lebanon. Overnight saw the Houthis send a barrage of missiles on Israel, which is the first such strike since the US began its Operation Epic Fury.

Military spokesman for the Houthis, Brigadier-General Yahya Saree, announced the attack on Saturday on the group’s Al Masirah satellite television, Al Jazeera has confirmed. Strikes “will continue until the declared objectives are achieved… and until the aggression against all fronts of the resistance ceases,” Saree said, confirming the Iran-aligned Yemeni group’s entry into the war on Tehran’s side.

Reports: In addition to damaging several air refuelling tankers, the Iranian missile attack of Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia reportedly damaged an E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft. USAF file image

The Israeli side confirmed the assault out of Yemen, saying that it intercepted one missile. This spells more bad news for global shipping through the other important regional energy and goods transit waterway, the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea. It will also make it even harder for Washington to try and wind down the conflict amid efforts to find an acceptable offramp. Interestingly, the Houthis are justifying their actions not just based on the US-Israel attack on Iran, but on assaults on populations in the broader region:

The group said the attack with a barrage of missiles came after continued targeting of infrastructure in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories, adding that their operations would continue until the “aggression” on all fronts ends.

Now Israelis will face aerial threats from Iranians, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Iraqi Shia paramilitaries…

Several people are lightly injured after an Iranian ballistic missile struck the Jerusalem-area town of Eshtaol, first responders say.

The missile, which is assessed to have carried a conventional warhead of several hundred kilograms of explosives, caused extensive damage to… pic.twitter.com/gn5xwZEjiP

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 28, 2026

At Least 15 Americans Wounded in Major Strikes on Saudi Base

The most significant overnight development saw major Iranian cross-Gulf attacks emerge. This is a serious escalation despite the White House having approached Tehran with a 15-point peace plan, delivered via Pakistan. The Iranians have clearly rejected it for now, and have instead launched a serious assault on Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia Friday.

The Wall Street Journal details that “Twelve American troops–up from 10 previously reported–were wounded in an Iranian attack on the Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia Friday, according to multiple U.S. and Arab officials.”

The AP in follow up issued higher figures: “Iran fired six ballistic missiles and 29 drones at Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan air base in a Friday attack that wounded at least 15 troops, including five seriously, according to the sources who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. U.S. officials initially reported that at least 10 U.S. troops were injured, including two seriously wounded.”

This is a very big deal. The E-3s were rushed in as replacements for the radars. Clearly, the Iranians know what they are looking for. https://t.co/MYZ6cGtP0G

— Policy Tensor (@policytensor) March 28, 2026

“The injured troops were inside a building on the base that was struck in the attack, the officials said,” the report continues. “The attack also damaged multiple U.S. refueling aircraft. At least one missile struck the base, as well as several unmanned aerial vehicles, according to two of the officials.” This marks the second significant strike on the same base. The aircraft hit was a KC-135 air refueling aircraft, which reportedly caught fire.

The mass casualty incident has raised ongoing questions of troop exposure and Pentagon preparedness for Iran’s response:

I have a question. Did the Pentagon look at Operation Spiderweb that destroyed a big chunk of Russian strategic aviation last year, and decide: nah, we’re good, we can just park our planes in the open within enemy reach because if we believe we have nothing to learn from these… https://t.co/LWK97USX8r

— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) March 28, 2026

Fresh Attacks on Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Kuwait

Iran’s missile war has continued expanding deeper into the Gulf, with the casualty count climbing in Abu Dhabi after an early Saturday strike. The Abu Dhabi Media Office confirms casualties (injuries, but no fatalities reported) have risen to six after a Saturday morning ballistic missile attack.

Elsewhere, in Bahrain, home to the United States Fifth Fleet, authorities reported air defenses have engaged almost nonstop over the past 24 hours, responding to 20 missiles and 23 drones.

Post raises question over future of Iran’s nuclear program, with one Iranian proclaiming “The war will boost Iranian science and technology.”

This is a building in Iran university of science and technology (IUST) that was targeted today in Tehran. This university -one of the leading engineering universities of Iran- is where I got my BSc and MSc degree in engineering years ago.
This aggression is all about Iran… pic.twitter.com/qXPo9JmZna

— Sarbaz Roohulla Rezvi (@SarbazRezvi) March 28, 2026

Kuwait has also taken fresh hits, with the ports of Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port and Shuwaikh Port sustaining damage amid combined drone and missile attacks, according to the Defense Ministry. Kuwaiti forces say they have also engaged four ballistic missiles, one cruise missile, and seven drones in the same window – in yet another sign the tempo is only accelerating.

Bushehr Nuclear Plant Hit for Third Time

Late-night strike targets Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, marking the third hit in 10 days as pressure mounts on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure – and as especially Israel seeks to obliterate it as fast as possible. Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization of Iran claims the attack caused no material damage, no casualties, as well as zero technical disruption at the facility.

And the International Atomic Energy Agency says it was notified by Tehran following the strike, underscoring continued monitoring even as attacks edge closer to sensitive nuclear sites. President Trump has meanwhile said that thousands of targets inside remain on the Pentagon’s list.

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

What’s in a name?  These days…not much.

The European Union does not include Ukraine; nevertheless and notwithstanding the objections of E.U. members Hungary and Slovakia…

…the European supra-state insists on paying the salaries of Ukraine’s government bureaucracy while that nation’s martial-law-holdover-president, Volodymyr Zelensky, fights to maintain control over a breakaway region that has rejected Ukrainian rule since the 2014 coup d’état of Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor Yanukovych.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization does not include Ukraine; nevertheless and notwithstanding the objections of NATO members Hungary and Slovakia…

….the American-led military alliance insists on sending money and weapons to the Kyiv regime warring with the Russian Federation over territories whose people overwhelmingly identify as Russian.  Former Dutch prime minister and current secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte, has stated on multiple occasions that the military alliance would continue to help defend non-NATO-member Ukraine.  

According to Ukraine’s newly appointed, thirty-something-year-old defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine has over two million draft dodgers and a quarter of a million active-duty troops who have gone AWOL.  

So NATO is protecting a non-NATO country whose men refuse to fight.  

NATO is assisting a Kyiv dictatorship that depends almost entirely upon conscription (including the violent “busification” of “recruits” after draft officers break into vehicles and homes with drawn weapons).

While the E.U. and NATO fight Russian authoritarianism by protecting Ukrainian authoritarianism, both institutions have remained relatively quiet as member states sustain actual attacks.  Seven months after Russia moved to annex the Russophone regions of Ukraine, the Nord Stream pipelines transporting natural gas from Russia to Germany were sabotaged and made inoperable.  German, Dutch, and French energy companies own interests in the pipelines.  Subsequent German investigations have identified a dozen Ukrainian suspects, including members of a Kyiv diving school where military personnel train.  Several independent journalists have concluded that Ukraine’s military carried out the underwater demolition of the Nord Stream pipelines.

If Ukraine’s government was, in fact, responsible for the destruction of the pipelines, then Ukraine (a non-NATO member) destroyed property belonging to NATO members.  Ukraine’s alleged act of sabotage cut off Russia’s inexpensive natural gas from most of Europe.  (Prior to the war, Russia supplied 45% of the E.U.’s natural gas imports.)  So the destruction of the pipelines has raised the cost of energy (and the price of finished goods transported within the Union) for European citizens.  NATO continues to protect a nation that may have directly attacked members of the military alliance.

Similarly, Ukraine has caused an international incident with regard to the European-Russian Druzhba (which means, “friendship”) Pipeline that was jointly constructed to transport Russian oil to Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, and the Czech Republic.  Last year, Ukraine’s military bombed several pumping stations servicing the pipeline.  This year, Ukraine’s government claims that Russia attacked the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba Pipeline (a claim the Russian Federation denies), effectively halting all deliveries of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia.  As both nations are almost entirely dependent upon this oil supply, the pipeline’s inoperability has created a major energy crisis for citizens of Hungary and Slovakia.  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico blame Ukraine for the oil shutdown.  Ukraine’s president/dictator Zelensky says he has no intention of repairing the pipeline.  After Hungary and Slovakia blocked additional sanctions on the Russian Federation and a ninety-billion-euro gift (a loan that never needs to be repaid) for Ukraine’s regime, Ukraine’s military destroyed another critical transit node of the Druzhba Pipeline in Russia.

President/Dictator Zelensky also made a little news two weeks ago when he directly threatened Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán’s life: “We hope that in the European Union, one person will not block the ninety billion [euros].  Otherwise, we will give this person’s address to the armed forces, to our guys, let them call him and talk to him in their own language.”  Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó condemned Kyiv’s thuggish “culture”: “This is the man Brussels admires and the country they want to fast-track into the European Union….No one can blackmail us just because we refuse to pay the price of Ukraine’s war and refuse to accept higher energy prices because of Ukraine.”  Prime Minister Orbán took the Ukrainian threat on his life in stride, saying: “There will be no deals, no compromise.  We will break the Ukrainian oil blockade by force.  Hungary’s energy will soon flow again through the Friendship pipeline.”

Orbán followed up by very publicly intercepting part of Zelensky’s alleged money-laundering operation running through Hungary.  Foreign Minister Szijjártó revealed that Hungary had already confiscated Ukrainian “mafia” funds that included tens of millions of U.S. dollars, tens of millions of euros, and a few million dollars in gold bars.  In addition, the foreign minister has alleged that several billion dollars worth of currency and gold have been transported through Hungary to Ukraine in the last two months.  A former Ukrainian general who once oversaw Zelensky’s intelligence service and secret police was detained in Hungary in connection to the suspected money laundering.  An angry Zelensky again threatened to send Ukraine’s “special military operators” to Prime Minister Orbán’s home.

In response to Zelensky’s increasingly belligerent behavior, Prime Minister Fico urged the European Commission to distance itself from Zelensky’s “outrageous blackmailing statements.”  The best that the Commission could do was a short statement from its deputy chief spokesperson, Olof Gill, in which the Eurocrat clinically observed: “Specifically in relation to the comments made by President Zelensky, we are very clear as the European Commission that that type of language is not acceptable.  There must not be threats against EU member states.”  At the same time, E.U. leaders pledged to provide for Ukraine’s budgetary needs for at least the next two years.

Ukraine is effectively waging an economic/energy war against Hungary and Slovakia.  Hungary and Slovakia are members of the E.U. and NATO.  Ukraine is a member of neither.  Nevertheless, the E.U. and NATO continue to take Ukraine’s side.  It is as if “unions” and “alliances” mean nothing.

In fact, the E.U. is not hiding its disdain for Hungary’s Orbán.  Brussels has made it very clear that it prefers Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party to oust Orbán’s Fidesz Party in Hungary’s upcoming parliamentary elections.  The European Commission has activated its Rapid Response System to “combat potential Russian online disinformation campaigns” in Hungary.  The E.U.’s handpicked “fact checkers” will use the powers of the new Digital Services Act to decide when online public debate qualifies as “disinformation” that must be censored.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee recently concluded that the E.U.’s Rapid Response System almost exclusively targets so-called “right-wing” and “populist” political candidates.  The European Commission has extended its online censorship campaign to one week after Hungary’s elections, allowing Eurocrats to monitor and censor public conversations concerning the election’s legitimacy.  While E.U.-funded NGOs work to oust Prime Minister Orbán, E.U.-funded censors will be in a position to label allegations of European election meddling as nothing more than “Russian talking points.”

Just as in Romania, Moldova, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, the E.U. will use its army of paid “influencers” and propagandists posing as “journalists” to manipulate the outcome of Hungary’s elections.  

To “save democracy,” Brussels’s Eurocrats believe that they are entitled to choose each nation’s leaders.  

They don’t want Orbán because Hungary’s current prime minister continues to block the E.U.’s funding for Ukraine.  

Brussels would do anything for martial-law-holdover-president/dictator Zelensky and non-E.U. Ukraine.  

But allowing the citizens of E.U.-member Hungary to vote for their own national interests?  That simply won’t do.

Authored by J.B. Shurk via American Thinker,

What’s in a name?  These days…not much.

The European Union does not include Ukraine; nevertheless and notwithstanding the objections of E.U. members Hungary and Slovakia…

…the European supra-state insists on paying the salaries of Ukraine’s government bureaucracy while that nation’s martial-law-holdover-president, Volodymyr Zelensky, fights to maintain control over a breakaway region that has rejected Ukrainian rule since the 2014 coup d’état of Ukraine’s then-president, Viktor Yanukovych.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization does not include Ukraine; nevertheless and notwithstanding the objections of NATO members Hungary and Slovakia…

….the American-led military alliance insists on sending money and weapons to the Kyiv regime warring with the Russian Federation over territories whose people overwhelmingly identify as Russian.  Former Dutch prime minister and current secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte, has stated on multiple occasions that the military alliance would continue to help defend non-NATO-member Ukraine.  

According to Ukraine’s newly appointed, thirty-something-year-old defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine has over two million draft dodgers and a quarter of a million active-duty troops who have gone AWOL.  

So NATO is protecting a non-NATO country whose men refuse to fight.  

NATO is assisting a Kyiv dictatorship that depends almost entirely upon conscription (including the violent “busification” of “recruits” after draft officers break into vehicles and homes with drawn weapons).

While the E.U. and NATO fight Russian authoritarianism by protecting Ukrainian authoritarianism, both institutions have remained relatively quiet as member states sustain actual attacks.  Seven months after Russia moved to annex the Russophone regions of Ukraine, the Nord Stream pipelines transporting natural gas from Russia to Germany were sabotaged and made inoperable.  German, Dutch, and French energy companies own interests in the pipelines.  Subsequent German investigations have identified a dozen Ukrainian suspects, including members of a Kyiv diving school where military personnel train.  Several independent journalists have concluded that Ukraine’s military carried out the underwater demolition of the Nord Stream pipelines.

If Ukraine’s government was, in fact, responsible for the destruction of the pipelines, then Ukraine (a non-NATO member) destroyed property belonging to NATO members.  Ukraine’s alleged act of sabotage cut off Russia’s inexpensive natural gas from most of Europe.  (Prior to the war, Russia supplied 45% of the E.U.’s natural gas imports.)  So the destruction of the pipelines has raised the cost of energy (and the price of finished goods transported within the Union) for European citizens.  NATO continues to protect a nation that may have directly attacked members of the military alliance.

Similarly, Ukraine has caused an international incident with regard to the European-Russian Druzhba (which means, “friendship”) Pipeline that was jointly constructed to transport Russian oil to Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, and the Czech Republic.  Last year, Ukraine’s military bombed several pumping stations servicing the pipeline.  This year, Ukraine’s government claims that Russia attacked the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba Pipeline (a claim the Russian Federation denies), effectively halting all deliveries of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia.  As both nations are almost entirely dependent upon this oil supply, the pipeline’s inoperability has created a major energy crisis for citizens of Hungary and Slovakia.  Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico blame Ukraine for the oil shutdown.  Ukraine’s president/dictator Zelensky says he has no intention of repairing the pipeline.  After Hungary and Slovakia blocked additional sanctions on the Russian Federation and a ninety-billion-euro gift (a loan that never needs to be repaid) for Ukraine’s regime, Ukraine’s military destroyed another critical transit node of the Druzhba Pipeline in Russia.

President/Dictator Zelensky also made a little news two weeks ago when he directly threatened Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán’s life: “We hope that in the European Union, one person will not block the ninety billion [euros].  Otherwise, we will give this person’s address to the armed forces, to our guys, let them call him and talk to him in their own language.”  Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó condemned Kyiv’s thuggish “culture”: “This is the man Brussels admires and the country they want to fast-track into the European Union….No one can blackmail us just because we refuse to pay the price of Ukraine’s war and refuse to accept higher energy prices because of Ukraine.”  Prime Minister Orbán took the Ukrainian threat on his life in stride, saying: “There will be no deals, no compromise.  We will break the Ukrainian oil blockade by force.  Hungary’s energy will soon flow again through the Friendship pipeline.”

Orbán followed up by very publicly intercepting part of Zelensky’s alleged money-laundering operation running through Hungary.  Foreign Minister Szijjártó revealed that Hungary had already confiscated Ukrainian “mafia” funds that included tens of millions of U.S. dollars, tens of millions of euros, and a few million dollars in gold bars.  In addition, the foreign minister has alleged that several billion dollars worth of currency and gold have been transported through Hungary to Ukraine in the last two months.  A former Ukrainian general who once oversaw Zelensky’s intelligence service and secret police was detained in Hungary in connection to the suspected money laundering.  An angry Zelensky again threatened to send Ukraine’s “special military operators” to Prime Minister Orbán’s home.

In response to Zelensky’s increasingly belligerent behavior, Prime Minister Fico urged the European Commission to distance itself from Zelensky’s “outrageous blackmailing statements.”  The best that the Commission could do was a short statement from its deputy chief spokesperson, Olof Gill, in which the Eurocrat clinically observed: “Specifically in relation to the comments made by President Zelensky, we are very clear as the European Commission that that type of language is not acceptable.  There must not be threats against EU member states.”  At the same time, E.U. leaders pledged to provide for Ukraine’s budgetary needs for at least the next two years.

Ukraine is effectively waging an economic/energy war against Hungary and Slovakia.  Hungary and Slovakia are members of the E.U. and NATO.  Ukraine is a member of neither.  Nevertheless, the E.U. and NATO continue to take Ukraine’s side.  It is as if “unions” and “alliances” mean nothing.

In fact, the E.U. is not hiding its disdain for Hungary’s Orbán.  Brussels has made it very clear that it prefers Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party to oust Orbán’s Fidesz Party in Hungary’s upcoming parliamentary elections.  The European Commission has activated its Rapid Response System to “combat potential Russian online disinformation campaigns” in Hungary.  The E.U.’s handpicked “fact checkers” will use the powers of the new Digital Services Act to decide when online public debate qualifies as “disinformation” that must be censored.

The U.S. House Judiciary Committee recently concluded that the E.U.’s Rapid Response System almost exclusively targets so-called “right-wing” and “populist” political candidates.  The European Commission has extended its online censorship campaign to one week after Hungary’s elections, allowing Eurocrats to monitor and censor public conversations concerning the election’s legitimacy.  While E.U.-funded NGOs work to oust Prime Minister Orbán, E.U.-funded censors will be in a position to label allegations of European election meddling as nothing more than “Russian talking points.”

Just as in Romania, Moldova, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, the E.U. will use its army of paid “influencers” and propagandists posing as “journalists” to manipulate the outcome of Hungary’s elections.  

To “save democracy,” Brussels’s Eurocrats believe that they are entitled to choose each nation’s leaders.  

They don’t want Orbán because Hungary’s current prime minister continues to block the E.U.’s funding for Ukraine.  

Brussels would do anything for martial-law-holdover-president/dictator Zelensky and non-E.U. Ukraine.  

But allowing the citizens of E.U.-member Hungary to vote for their own national interests?  That simply won’t do.

A viral video circulating on X appears to show a young developer unveiling a 3D-printed proof-of-concept prototype of a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile system, or MANPADS, built for less than $100.

According to the project page on GitHub, the five-minute video showcases a “proof-of-concept prototype of a low-cost rocket launcher and guided rocket system built using consumer electronics and 3D-printed components.”

The project description says the system uses an onboard flight computer, inertial measurement hardware, and a sensor stack that includes GPS, compass, and barometric modules to determine orientation and transmit telemetry.

At the end of the video, the developer says the prototype was only made possible because “modern tools, additive manufacturing, consumer electronics, and rapid prototyping have shattered the old barriers that once confined advanced hardware to well-funded laboratories.”

someone built a $96 3D-PRINTED MANPADS rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor and piano wire

its called Project Canard

it integrates with distributed camera nodes to triangulate airborne targets and update flight paths in real-time

it proves the… pic.twitter.com/WPz6ffUQzr

— chiefofautism (@chiefofautism) March 15, 2026

He added, “This prototype explores what happens when these tools are pushed into defense, creating systems that are powerful, modular, and scalable in ways that were once impossible.” 

The big takeaway is that 3D printing and consumer electronics are turning weapons into scalable hardware. Together, they are making warfare cheaper, faster, more decentralized, and more accessible to civilians. This technology has already appeared on modern battlefields, from FPV drones in Ukraine equipped with shaped charges to low-cost Iranian drones. 

Warfare has been permanently changed, as the hyper-development seen over the last four years in Ukraine and elsewhere has pulled 2030s-era war technology into the present.

Perhaps the kid has a future in working for some ‘war unicorn‘ that produces low-cost war tech. That’s certainly what the Department of War is searching for. He created a prototype MANPADS for $97. The Army currently pays $400,000 per unit.

*  *  * CHECK IT OUT

Spring Sale – Readywise

Anza – limited edition knives & mini shanks

Protein – your daily usual + peptides

A viral video circulating on X appears to show a young developer unveiling a 3D-printed proof-of-concept prototype of a shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile system, or MANPADS, built for less than $100.

According to the project page on GitHub, the five-minute video showcases a “proof-of-concept prototype of a low-cost rocket launcher and guided rocket system built using consumer electronics and 3D-printed components.”

The project description says the system uses an onboard flight computer, inertial measurement hardware, and a sensor stack that includes GPS, compass, and barometric modules to determine orientation and transmit telemetry.

At the end of the video, the developer says the prototype was only made possible because “modern tools, additive manufacturing, consumer electronics, and rapid prototyping have shattered the old barriers that once confined advanced hardware to well-funded laboratories.”

someone built a $96 3D-PRINTED MANPADS rocket that recalculates its mid-air trajectory using a $5 sensor and piano wire

its called Project Canard

it integrates with distributed camera nodes to triangulate airborne targets and update flight paths in real-time

it proves the… pic.twitter.com/WPz6ffUQzr

— chiefofautism (@chiefofautism) March 15, 2026

He added, “This prototype explores what happens when these tools are pushed into defense, creating systems that are powerful, modular, and scalable in ways that were once impossible.” 

The big takeaway is that 3D printing and consumer electronics are turning weapons into scalable hardware. Together, they are making warfare cheaper, faster, more decentralized, and more accessible to civilians. This technology has already appeared on modern battlefields, from FPV drones in Ukraine equipped with shaped charges to low-cost Iranian drones. 

Warfare has been permanently changed, as the hyper-development seen over the last four years in Ukraine and elsewhere has pulled 2030s-era war technology into the present.

Perhaps the kid has a future in working for some ‘war unicorn‘ that produces low-cost war tech. That’s certainly what the Department of War is searching for. He created a prototype MANPADS for $97. The Army currently pays $400,000 per unit.

*  *  * CHECK IT OUT

Spring Sale – Readywise

Anza – limited edition knives & mini shanks

Protein – your daily usual + peptides

Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,

A new report backed by European conservative lawmakers is sounding the alarm over what it describes as the spread of “no-go zones” across the European Union, linking the phenomenon directly to mass immigration, Islamization, and the breakdown of state authority in major urban areas.

The report was presented at a press conference on Wednesday by Sweden Democrats MEP Charlie Weimers, French nationalist MEP Marion Maréchal, and Brothers of Italy MEP Nicola Procaccini. Published by New Direction, the foundation tied to the ECR parliamentary group, the study argues that large parts of Europe are witnessing the rise of “parallel societies where the laws of the State are increasingly replaced by the codes of radicalisation and the rule of violence.”

Maréchal said the findings showed the trend was no myth. “France has 751 sensitive areas and 1,362 priority neighborhoods. Our study demonstrates that no-go zones develop according to two factors: immigration and Islamization — 63 percent of Islamist terrorists are linked to these areas,” she said at the launch event.

Procaccini described the document as “a wake-up call on the failures of uncontrolled immigration,” a line that closely echoed the report’s own foreword, which says Europe must confront “the failures of uncontrolled immigration, the lack of effective integration policies, and the abdication of responsibility by local governments.” It adds that the publication is intended to be the first in an annual series.

🚨 Europe’s No-Go Zones Exposed: New report details how mass immigration and rapid Islamisation are fueling the rise of parallel societies

Download here: https://t.co/sToIe41uGy pic.twitter.com/XxPW8yIUD9

— Charlie Weimers MEP 🇸🇪 (@weimers) March 25, 2026

The study sets out a scoring system built around crime and violence, the existence of parallel societies, and evidence of state withdrawal. 

Using that framework, it examined 17 neighborhoods across seven EU countries, ranking France’s Franc Moisin district at the top with a score of 10, followed by La Castellane in Marseille, Molenbeek in Brussels, and Rosengard in Malmö, each with scores of 9.4. Other districts highlighted include Neukölln in Berlin, Marxloh in Duisburg, Raval in Barcelona, and Schilderswijk in The Hague.

New @NDConservatism report takes a look at “no-go zones” throughout Europe, comparing them on the basis of objective criteria unrelated to religion. The situation is most problematic in France, Belgium and Sweden:https://t.co/IKBDrUq3bg https://t.co/nR5qGO6VGd pic.twitter.com/K8c9GgC5ro

— Pieter Cleppe (@pietercleppe) March 24, 2026

According to the report, these areas are marked by patterns such as elevated violent crime, youth gang activity, riots, unemployment, early school leaving, attacks on police or firefighters, and emergency-service delays or refusals. The authors argue that these factors together point to places where state control has weakened, and parallel authority structures have arisen.

The report also claims a strong correlation between no-go zones and the share of foreign-born and Muslim populations, arguing that the overrepresentation of both in the studied districts reflects broader demographic and cultural changes reshaping European cities.

It says the average Muslim share in the identified areas is 29 percent, compared with an EU-wide average of 4.9 percent, and argues that no-go zones are “highly correlated to mass immigration” and “highly correlated to Islam.”

In its foreword, New Direction says the reluctance to use terms like “no-go zone” has created a divide between public debate and reality, and warns that Europe risks losing not only control of its streets but also “the very values of freedom and equality that define our civilization” if such areas continue to thrive.

The term has been used before to describe specific areas in European cities with high levels of immigration and crime. In November last year, Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Martin Hess warned that German train stations, “once places of mobility and peaceful encounters, are increasingly becoming no-go areas. In many areas of crime, foreigners are disproportionately represented among the suspects.”

In September, a leaked recording from the Spanish town of Torelló revealed local police officers acknowledging they are unable to control violent migrant groups gathering in certain areas, and have been laughed at and forced to retreat from dispatch calls.

“They are laughing at us,” the officer said in the call. “They are throwing us out. If we don’t want to get hurt, we too [must leave],” he added, describing how officers had to withdraw after being met with hostility.

As far back as 2022, Swedish ambulance workers were threatening to refuse to go to certain neighborhoods in Stockholm due to the hostility from largely migrant populations.

“We’re worried that someone will get killed if nothing happens,” specialist nurse Linda Orrvik said at the time.

“We go to places where gun violence occurs, places where there are weapons and narcotics, and places where there are other rules than the rule of law we’re used to,” added paramedic Henrik Johansson.

Read more here…

Via Gun Owners of America,

The current Department of Justice is choosing to continue enforcing an unconstitutional legal theory being weaponized against gun owners by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

GOA

According to a recent statement in GOA’s Texas et al. v. ATF case, DOJ claims that ATF “continue[s] to enforce the NFA’s and the GCA’s regulation of short-barreled rifles against some brace-equipped pistols, even though the Rule has been universally vacated.”

For those who are unfamiliar, in 2022 the Biden Administration issued an executive order instructing the Department of Justice to ban pistol braces, a popular firearm accessory designed to allow shooters with disabilities to “brace” their firearms against their forearm.

The Biden DOJ used this rule to effectively outlaw firearms equipped with stabilizing braces, by regulating them as short-barreled firearms under the National Firearms Act. This move turned the law-abiding owners of upwards of 40 million pistol braces  into felons practically overnight, unless they destroyed their firearm or registered it with the federal government.

GOA and other pro-gun groups challenged this pistol brace rule in multiple courts across the country, culminating with a total elimination of the rule in court.

With this victory, pistol braces were once again viable options for shooters, and owners of pistol-braced firearms were no longer in danger of becoming felons…or so they thought.

Unfortunately, it seems as though the current Justice Department is looking to pick up right where Biden’s DOJ left off.  And so ATF appears to be still enforcing the very same legal theories about braces, as confirmed by their statement in GOA’s pistol brace case.

This development is extremely concerning for GOA and millions of gun owners nationwide who own pistol brace-equipped firearms.

In addition, the continued possibility of felony NFA charges against at least some gun owners with braced pistols stands in stark contrast to President Trump’s repeated campaign promises to gun owners:

“I will eliminate the Biden ATFs ridiculous pistol brace rule, which orders law-abiding citizens to register or surrender guns with stabilizing braces.”

– President Trump on April 14th, 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana

“[President Biden] imposed the so-called pistol brace rule which orders law-abiding citizens to register or surrender guns with certain equipment. You know that many of you are forced to do it. … All of those Biden disasters get ripped up and torn out my first week but maybe my first day in office okay, okay maybe my first.”

– President Trump on Feb. 9th, 2024 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

The disconnect between President Trump’s campaign promises and the Department of Justice’s recent threat to owners of firearms with pistol braces justifiably has led to a great deal of confusion and concern.

Over the past week, GOA brought this matter to the attention of multiple senior DOJ officials and expressed our members’ concerns.  Unfortunately, we were given no indication that ATF intends to reverse course.

To gun owners and the firearm industry, we urge caution. ATF and DOJ apparently intend to continue targeting at least some braced pistols.  But it is currently unclear which braced pistols the ATF believes are illegal short-barreled rifles.  In fact, ATF told one of our colleagues that it will not issue any classification letter classifying firearms with braces—unless it is in a criminal case.  This means that all pistol braced firearms—and their owners—are in jeopardy. 

To the Trump Administration, we request a swift re-affirmation of the President’s intention to end the Biden Pistol Brace Ban, and affirmation of the legality of all pistols equipped with stabilizing braces – once and for all. It’s 2026, and the National Firearms Act no longer even imposes a tax on short-barreled firearms. There is no reason for bureaucrats at ATF to fret over barrel length, or the ability of a firearm to be shouldered. DOJ must follow President Trump’s executive order and protect our Second Amendment rights!

Even as the Department of Justice fights us in court, we continue to seek a permanent injunction against ATF’s enforcement of its legal theories regulating braced pistols as short-barreled firearms. And we continue to challenge the dubious regulation of short-barreled firearms under the guise of a non-existent $0 tax. We will not give up until the NFA is eliminated, and our rights are fully protected and restored.

[ZH] If you agree with GOA and their efforts, consider joining or contributing

Over the course of the last decade, the great social debate has mostly revolved around the issue of “merit vs equity”, or equality of opportunity vs equality of outcome.  For anyone with common sense it’s clear that “equity” is a non-starter; a system which skews accomplishment and hands success to unqualified people based solely on their ethnicity, gender or sexual identity.  The experiment has been disastrous for western civilization so far.

Women in general and black women in particular were initially sought out by companies to fill DEI quotas that should not have existed in the first place.  These quotas were instituted because governments and NGO’s created the demand for them by offering numerous subsidies, tax breaks and special credit access.  Corporations that met the DEI requirements would then have a financial edge on the competition, so everyone had to participate to avoid being surpassed by the other guy.   

One interesting side effect has been the encouragement of cultural delusion among certain demographics.  The idea that minorities are somehow being “held back” by “white supremacy” and that they are at the same time far more accomplished than their oppressors is self perpetuating.  One of the most common arguments heard in defense of the woke era was that “black women are the most educated and successful group” in America today. 

This claim, of course, relied heavily on DEI in college admissions and DEI in corporate hiring.  Black women were by far the biggest beneficiaries of DEI practices.  Furthermore, the explosion in women’s wages and minority wages was thanks to a unique but brief employment market built on easy venture capital.  This created an explosion in tech jobs, marketing jobs, HR and diversity positions, not to mention an avalanche of web media jobs promoting progressive ideologies.

On top of all this, government hiring accelerated dramatically under the Biden Administration, and a lot of these jobs went to women and minorities in order promote equity quotas. 

This all changed in 2025 with the virtual death of DEI, triggered by the Trump Administration crackdown through DOGE cuts and the advancement of civil suits against companies engaged in anti-white hiring practices.  Almost immediately black women were most affected by the change.

Over 300,000 black women faced layoffs last year, with the trend continuing into 2026 and some estimates at around 500,000 total job losses.  Currently, the unemployment rate for black women is 7.1%, far above the national average of 4.4%.  Black female employees represented 12% of all federal employees in 2024 (double their share of the population in the national labor force), but they were also 33% of federal layoffs in 2025-2026. 

The first response of progressives is to cry “racism” over these numbers, but they’re not asking the question that really needs to be asked:  Did these women truly qualify for the jobs they were hired for?  Or, were they hired to make a political virtue statement and to collect subsidies?  If they were highly competent and well trained, then one would think companies and government agencies would keep them regardless of extra cash or tax breaks. 

Their value as workers should be enough.  Another potential cause of these layoffs beyond the end of DEI is the prospect that black liberal women are notoriously difficult to work with.  Companies tolerated them because there were financial benefits to having them on staff, but now those benefits are drying up.

The exodus of black women from the workforce has become a conundrum for the political left and the cope is flowing.  The media is running stories regularly on the “return of black women” through burgeoning communities and online support groups.  The discussion is often centered on the way in which black women can “regain their seat at the table”.  The problem is, the dynamic that gave them so much access in the woke years no longer exists and it’s probably never coming back.

Beyond the collapse of DEI programs there is the looming specter of AI.  Artificial Intelligence was initially heralded as an Apocalypse for low wage workers in entry level positions.  However, the real demographic under threat is women in corporate environments. 

Of the 6.1 million workers whose jobs are the most likely to be disrupted by AI and least likely to adapt, 86% are women, a recent Brookings analysis has found.  Labor markets most populated by women in air conditioned offices across the nation – secretaries, receptionists, payroll clerks, customer service representatives, middle management, marketing, online journalism, education, even HR and communications – are all under threat from AI. 

As easily as black women were elevated to six-figure incomes and the upper-middle class lifestyle, they are now on the verge of losing it all.  The sad thing is, DEI built an environment in which every minority in a high level position became suspect.  While there are certainly minority employees who are highly skilled and deserve the jobs they have, the decade of DEI has put them in a state of constant suspicion.  Today, no one knows who was hired based on merit, and who was hired because of their skin color.                         

Submitted by Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com 

Oil prices could hit a record $200 per barrel if the war in the Middle East drags on through the entire second quarter, analysts at Macquarie Group have warned. 

The odds of the Iran war dragging on until June were put at 40% by the analysts in a note carried by Bloomberg. But the scenario of the war ending by the end of March currently appears more plausible, with odds at 60%, according to Macquarie.   

“If the strait were to stay closed for an extended period, prices would need to move high enough to destroy an historically large amount of global oil demand,” Macquarie’s analysts wrote in the report. 

“The timing of the re-opening of the straits, and physical damage to energy infrastructure, is the main determinant of the longer-term impact on commodities,” they added. 

Many other analysts warn that if the Strait of Hormuz, which is already closed to most tanker traffic for nearly a month, remains blocked for another month or two, oil prices could jump to as high as $150 and even $200 per barrel, forcing a global economic shock.    

Analysts started expressing views that $200 oil is not a fantasy anymore—with 20% of global oil supply choked at the Strait of Hormuz buyers are racing to procure physical cargoes, refiners in Asia consider cutting processing rates, and Asian countries restrict fuel exports. 

Andrew Harbourne, Wood Mackenzie’s senior analyst for oil markets, notes that the record 400-million-barrel release coordinated by the International Energy Agency (IEA) will cover only about four weeks of disruption in the Gulf.

“Strategic stocks remain an effective emergency buffer, but they are a one-off intervention that must eventually be rebuilt and cannot cover a sustained supply gap,” Harbourne added. 

Supply shocks in the past suggest that if the war and the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz persist, Brent crude prices could surge to $150 to $200 per barrel. For some petroleum products, such as diesel and jet fuel, the effective prices could be $200 to $250 a barrel or more, according to WoodMac.   

In a surprising announcement splashed all over Israeli media front pages, especially given the ongoing censorship regimen related to the Iran war, Israel’s military chief has sounded the alarm over a severe manpower crisis in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Military Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has warned the “IDF is going to collapse in on itself” during a security cabinet meeting this week, according to Times of Israel and others. This as Israeli forces are now fighting on multiple fronts: there’s the major war against Iran, as well as the ‘northern front’ against Hezbollah in Lebanon and amid IAF airstrikes on Beirut, and Israeli forces are still operating in Gaza. 

via AFP

“I am raising 10 red flags in front of you,” Gen. Zamir warned the country’s civilian leadership, citing intensifying operational demands across all the fronts.

“Right now, the IDF needs a conscription law, a reserve duty law, and a law to extend mandatory service,” he laid out, per local media sources. “Before long, the IDF will not be ready for its routine missions and the reserve system will not last.”

So this appears a major push to immediately get more personnel into active service, over and above the standard required 32-months of mandatory service (and women serve 24 months).

This is also in line with fresh Netanyahu efforts at expanding the size of the armed forces and increasing retention:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government plans to extend mandatory military service as the army grapples with a deepening personnel shortage, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported Thursday.

Netanyahu made the remarks during a security cabinet meeting in response to Army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, who warned that the army could “collapse” if the crisis is not addressed.

He said the government would move to revise conscription laws and extend service periods after the Jewish Passover holiday.

Already due to years of fighting in Gaza against Hamas, the IDF was said to be reaching exhaustion among its ranks, with last fall The Wall Street Journal reporting that:

“The Israeli military is beginning to draw down the number of its reservists serving in Gaza and other arenas, in a sign that it is reducing the intensity of fighting after two years of war and as the U.S.-brokered cease-fire holds.”

Currently, the warring sides – especially Iran and Israel – appear to be settling in for a long war even as Washington is said to be seeking to cobble together a ceasefire deal in search of an offramp. 

Israel is dropping 2,000lb bombs in residential districts in Tehran. “40-50 people” killed in a single strike, local authorities and residents told BBC.

The Israeli military says 3,600 bombs dropped on the Iranian capital alone.https://t.co/yY6KbvTfTW

— Mohammad Ali Shabani (@mashabani) March 27, 2026

Israel has indicated at least four soldiers killed in Lebanon operations, and as for casualties related to the ongoing Iranian bombardment, this isn’t clear – amid broader reports of deaths and injuries to the civilian population.

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