Iran War Disrupts Fertilizer Supply Chain
March 12th, 2026Via: CNBC:
The war in Iran could raise global food prices as the conflict disrupts fertilizer shipments through one of the world’s most critical trade routes.
While energy markets have focused on oil supply risks, analysts say threats to fertilizer supply chains through the Strait of Hormuz may also bring long-term economic issues through food inflation.
“Beyond energy, another risk receiving less attention is the potential knock-on effect on food prices, as fertilizer shortages push agricultural costs higher,” said Wolfe Research chief economist Stephanie Roth in a note written on Tuesday.
Roth estimates the disruption could raise “food-at-home” inflation by roughly 2 percentage points, adding about 0.15 percentage points to headline inflation in the U.S., on top of roughly 0.40 percentage point increase from energy.
Those potential price hikes come as U.S. consumers face a sustained stretch of higher prices for food, housing and energy.
More than one-third of globally traded fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making it a critical artery for agricultural supply chains. Commercial traffic through the route has largely been halted since the war started late last month, disrupting shipments just as farmers across the Northern Hemisphere prepare fields for spring planting.
New York Times: U.S. Responsible for Deadly Strike on Iran School that Killed 160, Mostly Girls
March 12th, 2026Via: Mint:
A Tomahawk missile strike on a school in southern Iran in February that reportedly killed more than 160 people, mostly children, was likely the result of a targeting mistake by the United States, according to a preliminary US military investigation cited in a report by the New York Times.
The report on 11 March, quoting unnamed US officials and others familiar with the initial findings, said the initial investigation has concluded that the strike on 28 February on the Shajarah Tayyebeh school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the US military planners.
The NYT report comes days after a CBS report found that the United States may have been responsible for the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran. Citing sources, the report said that preliminary US assessment has suggested that Washington is “likely” responsible for the attack, adding that it may have hit the school in error, possibly due to the use of outdated intelligence inputs.
The US military was conducting strikes on an adjacent Iranian base, of which the school building was formerly a part, the preliminary investigation found, according to the NYT report.
Officers at US Central Command created the target coordinates for the strike using outdated data provided by the Defence Intelligence Agency, people briefed on the investigation quoted in the report said.
The findings are preliminary, and some unanswered questions about why the outdated information had not been double-checked remain.
Two Tankers On Fire at Iraqi Port After Iran Attacks
March 11th, 2026Update: New Ayatollah’s First Message: Hormuz Strait Stays Closed, Warns ‘More Fronts’ Could Open
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Via: Oilprice:
Two oil tankers carrying Iraqi oil products caught fire Wednesday after being struck in Iraqi territorial waters near the country’s southern export terminals, according to Iraqi port officials and multiple media reports.
The vessels, Vishnu, a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker chartered to an Iraqi company, and Zefyros, a Malta-flagged tanker transporting condensate from the Basra Gas Company, were operating near Iraq’s Al-Faw port area close to Basra when the incident occurred.
Iraq’s director general of the General Company for Ports, Farhan al-Fartousi, told CNN that 38 crew members, all of whom were foreign nationals, were rescued from the tankers carrying Iraqi fuel oil.
Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO told CNN the vessels were attacked “while present in the sideloading area within Iraqi territorial waters.”
Iran claimed responsibility for the attacks via state media, saying an underwater drone attack “blew up two oil tankers in the Persian Gulf tonight.”
More: Oman: Salalah Port Closed, Fuel Storage Tanks On Fire
IEA: Largest Ever Oil Stock Release Amid Market Disruptions From Middle East Conflict
March 11th, 2026Via: International Energy Agency:
The 32 Member countries of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed today to make 400 million barrels of oil from their emergency reserves available to the market to address disruptions in oil markets stemming from the war in the Middle East.
The decision to take emergency collective action was made following an extraordinary meeting of IEA Member governments yesterday, convened by the IEA Executive Director to assess market conditions amid the conflict in the Middle East and consider the options to address supply disruptions.
“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA Member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. “Oil markets are global so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too. Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA Members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together.”
The emergency stocks will be made available to the market over a timeframe that is appropriate to the national circumstances of each Member country and will be supplemented by additional emergency measures by some countries.
IEA members hold emergency stockpiles of over 1.2 billion barrels, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation. The coordinated stock release is the sixth in the history of the IEA, which was created in 1974. Previous collective actions were taken in 1991, 2005, 2011, and twice in 2022.
The conflict in the Middle East that began on 28 February 2026 has impeded oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, with export volumes of crude and refined products currently at less than 10% of pre-conflict levels. This is forcing operators across the region to shut in or curtail a substantial amount of production.
An average of 20 million barrels per day of crude oil and oil products transited the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, or around 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade. Options for oil flows to bypass the Strait of Hormuz are limited.
The IEA Secretariat will provide further details of how this collective action will be implemented in due course. It will also continue to closely monitor global oil and gas markets and to provide recommendations to Member governments, as needed.
Iran Attacking Ships Attempting to Transit Strait of Hormuz
March 11th, 2026Via: Telegraph:
The Islamic Republic’s joint command threatened the US, Israel and their allies with attacks on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz as the countries continue their bombing campaign against Iran.
It said it would shift from “reciprocal hits” to “continuous strikes” on its adversaries – a move it warned could push global oil prices to $200 (£160) a barrel.
“We won’t allow even one litre of oil to reach the ?US, Zionists and their partners. Any vessel or ?tanker bound to them ?will be a legitimate target,” ?Ebrahim Zolfaqari, an Iranian military spokesman, ?said.
“Get ready for the oil barrel to ?be at $200 because the oil price ?depends on ?the regional security which you have destabilised,” he added.
The threat follows overnight strikes on three cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, including the Thai bulk carrier Mayuree Naree, whose crew was evacuated by the Omani navy.
Meet The Ellisons: Zionists, Technocrats, Moguls
March 11th, 2026Via: Corbett Report:
U.S. Sinks Iranian Minelayers as Reports Say Tehran Is Mining the Strait of Hormuz
March 10th, 2026Via: CNBC:
American forces on Tuesday sunk several Iranian ships, including 16 minelayers, near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the U.S. Central Command, amid reports that Tehran was seeking to mine the waterway critical to global energy supplies.
The U.S. announcement followed a post by President Donald Trump that said if Iran had put any mines in the Strait, “we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!”
“If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before. If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction!,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
The U.S president later claimed that 10 inactive minelaying ships were sunk, with “more to come.”
A CNN report Tuesday said that Iran had started laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, albeit not extensively. Sources that CNN spoke to said only a “few dozen” had been laid in recent days.
Yann LeCun Raises $1 Billion to Build AI That Understands the Physical World
March 10th, 2026Via: Wired:
Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI), a new Paris-based startup cofounded by Meta’s former chief AI scientist Yann LeCun, announced Monday it has raised more than $1 billion to develop AI world models.
LeCun argues that most human reasoning is grounded in the physical world, not language, and that AI world models are necessary to develop true human-level intelligence. “The idea that you’re going to extend the capabilities of LLMs [large language models] to the point that they’re going to have human-level intelligence is complete nonsense,” he said in an interview with WIRED.
Soviet Research Into Cancer and Parasites
March 10th, 2026Via: Daily Mail:
A newly surfaced CIA document suggests US intelligence once reviewed research that hinted at a possible cancer treatment more than 60 years ago.
The document, produced in February 1951 and declassified in 2014, summarizes a Soviet scientific paper that examined striking similarities between parasitic worms and cancerous tumors.
The report describes how researchers believed both organisms thrived under nearly identical metabolic conditions and accumulated large reserves of glycogen, a form of stored energy.
The research also highlighted experiments showing that certain chemical compounds were capable of targeting both parasitic infections and malignant tumors.
One drug, Myracyl D, was reportedly effective against bilharzia parasites as well as cancerous growths, hinting that treatments developed for parasites might also attack tumors.
Other compounds were found to interfere with nucleic acid production, a process essential for the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells.
Experiments on mice even showed that tumor tissues reacted differently to certain chemicals than normal tissues, further reinforcing the perceived biochemical overlap between parasites and cancers.
DARPA’s Newest X-Plane: X-76 Fold-Away Rotor Aircraft
March 10th, 2026Introducing our latest X-Plane, the X-76! ?
Part of a joint effort with @USSOCOM on the SPRINT program, this experimental aircraft is being built by @BellFlight to demonstrate runway-independent, high-speed flight. pic.twitter.com/hBnDzjcHAO
— DARPA (@DARPA) March 9, 2026
Via: The War Zone:
Bell’s X-76 design centers on wingtip proprotors with blades that fold away after the transition from hover to level flight, as you can read more about here. The company calls this the Stop/Fold rotor system.
As we have described in the past:
At its most basic, the Stop/Fold concept is intended to offer vertical takeoff and landing capability, as well as the ability to hover, but with a tilting rotor system that can be stowed in a lower-drag configuration to allow for higher-speed level flight. A separate traditional jet propulsion system provides forward thrust in the latter mode.
