In other news Australia is having more issues with China.

The Northern territories of Australia “sold” a 99 year lease of Port Darwin in 2005.

The current labor government in Australia now wants it back.

China is again making threats of retaliation against Australia.

A google inquiry resulted in :” The Chinese-owned Landbridge Group has controlled the Port of Darwin since October 2015. The company secured a 99-year lease for approximately A$506 million from the Northern Territory government.
Quora
Quora
+3
Current Status and Limits on Activities
While Landbridge has operational control over the commercial port, its activities are subject to several Australian legal and regulatory limits:
Commercial Use Only: The port is operated as a commercial enterprise under Australian law. It is primarily a trading hub for cattle, mining, and gas industries.
Military Restrictions: Chinese warships cannot dock at the port without express permission from the Australian government. The nearby Naval Base Darwin remains under separate Australian military control.
Regulatory Scrutiny: All goods entering the port are subject to Australian customs inspections. The facility is also under ongoing monitoring for national security risks to critical infrastructure.
Termination Clause: The lease reportedly includes a clause allowing the Australian government to reclaim the port if national security is threatened.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
+4
Recent Developments (2025–2026)
As of early 2026, the future of Chinese control is uncertain:
Forced Sale Plans: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Party pledged during the 2025 federal election to return the port to Australian control.
Diplomatic Tensions: The Chinese ambassador, Xiao Qian, has warned that a "forced sale" would be unethical and could lead to retaliation or international arbitration.
Ongoing Negotiations: While the Australian government is currently working on a plan for a "buy-back" or forced sale, Landbridge maintains that the port is "not for sale" and continues "business as usual". ”

Looks like a similar situation to what happened in Central America and the control of the Atlantic and Pacific terminals.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Sunday, March 08, 2026 - 12:43 pm: Edit

Oz should just TIGHTLY limit visas to Chinese who want to work there... You need a visa? No worries; it should be ready in 6 months or so... That is assuming visas for Chinese workers are guaranteed under the lease agreement,

So the Chinese would be forced to hire locals.

Then start holding China to the exact wording of the lease.

Have the Oz version of the EPA there constantly. Same with Oz OSHA. Oz Coaast Guard should "randomly" inspect every Chinese registered or crewed ship every time. You do know you can tell if the fuel oil in a ship is Russian, right?

Then of course every Chinese that is caught spying should result in a "Deep security" review... Which might include a deep audit of computer files, etc.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 08, 2026 - 04:56 pm: Edit

Police disarmed a bomb near Gracie Mansion, home of the Mayor of New York. The bomb included a very powerful professional grade explosive called TATP or something like that. I cannot find an online reference but that four letter thing was what I heard on TV. That kind of explosive can theoretically be mixed at home but doing so is tricky. The bomb might have been a dud or maybe the cop yanked the fuse in time.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, March 08, 2026 - 07:01 pm: Edit

The Iranians have selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as their new Supreme Leader.

By Jason E. Schaff (Jschaff297061) on Sunday, March 08, 2026 - 07:41 pm: Edit

TATP = triacetone triperoxide, a very nasty and unstable primary high explosive.

It's fairly straightforward to cook up in your kitchen, but there is a good chance you wouldn't survive the experience at any meaningful scale.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 08, 2026 - 08:14 pm: Edit

A second and third suspected bomb have been found near Gracie Mansion. A bomb with as much TATP as these had would have leveled a city block.

Two men with Islamic names have been arrested. Both are US citizens.

The attack is now thought to be a plot by Islamic radicals targeting the anti-Islamic protest being held in front of Graci Mamsion.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, March 08, 2026 - 08:17 pm: Edit

Trump says Mojtaba isn’t acceptable.

The president of Iran otdered a halt to attacks on other countries and apologized for the attacks, then was apparently removed from power as the IRGC said attacks would accelerate.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 12:03 am: Edit

Indeed, Trump does say that. According to one of the senior clerics involved in the selection, it was one of the stronger reasons for the choice. Pettiness and spite are universal.

The Pres. of Iran apology thing (apologizing for attacks on other Gulf states) resulted in a huge backlash and a revision on the call to halt attacks, changing it to "halt attacks on those Gulf states that aren't supporting the U.S. military" (almost all of them are supporting the U.S. military one way or another, making the offer fairly meaningless).

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 01:07 am: Edit

Mojtaba would have been the choice no matter what Trump said.

I would advise him to take a shower every day to be sure he’s ready for his 72 virgins,

By Chuck Strong (Raider) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 04:24 am: Edit

It now appears that Mojtaba “Skippy” Khamenei has been diagnosed with terminal, high speed, lead poisoning and not expected to survive the month…

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 07:34 am: Edit

Sky News, Australia, is reporting that Mojtaba “Skippy” Khamenei has been injured in an air strike this morning.

This is a person a person you wouldn’t want to be around.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 08:21 am: Edit

Slight correction: what Sky News Australia (and multiple other outlets) reported was that Mojtaba Khamenei had been wounded during the ongoing conflict, rather than specifically in an air strike this morning.

The apparent reason for this is that Iranian state media has been referring to him as "Jaanbaz [injured war veteran] of Ramadan [Iranian state media are calling this the Ramadan War]". What we don't know is when he was wounded; it may have been during the same strikes at the start that took out the previous Supreme Leader and a chunk of his family.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 09:38 am: Edit

Slight correction to the slight correction:

CNN is reporting (actually dated March 7, 2026) that “Skippy” was targeted by Israel Defense Forces earlier this week, wounded but walked away after the attempt.

Perhaps we should start a raffle or a lottery? Name the date and time, winner gets bragging rights.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 10:12 am: Edit

Am I the only person who thinks this is now in bad taste?

By Matthew Lawson (Mglawson) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 10:32 am: Edit

Unfortunately this will continue to happen until someone Trump approves of takes charge, who and how they will do that is anyone's guess.

I've heard on different platforms several different interviews of ex-Iranians who all seem to agree the new leader needs to be young and have more 'modern' thoughts. However; if you are one of those people, how do you step up without being killed by your own people or the US?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 10:45 am: Edit

Paul, yes, almost, I am sure a good part of one percent agree with you.

Mojtaba is an obstacle to peace.

He woke up this morning to find a note on his nightstand:

Mene, mene, Tekel, uparshim.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 11:18 am: Edit

The Persian number station is still broadcasting, although the frequency changed. No one yet knows if this station is run by Iran or Israel or the US or someone else.

Dozens of number stations operated in the Cold War, but most closed a decade ago. Almost all run on Windows XP. These stations consist of a voice reading a series of numbers. It was always assumed that these were run by intelligence agencies to communicate with deep cover spies. A spy would tune in at a specific time for the number that identifies them, the next numbers would correspond to written instructions in a code book telling them what operations to conduct or what information to seek.

There has always been a theory that some of the stations were elaborate hoaxes by fun loving radio hobbyists.

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 11:52 am: Edit

May or may not be true - but the BBC is now reporting that they think it was a US Tomahawk Missile (rather than an Israeli Missile, or Iranian missile/false flag attack) which hit the Iranian School (killing possibly 110 children and 58 other people) on the first day of the war.

Would like to say more - but best not to.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 02:30 pm: Edit

Bahrain's state-owned energy company, Bapco Energies, has declared force majeure on its shipments following an Iranian drone attack that damaged its Sitra refinery today; it cannot fulfill its contracts.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 02:35 pm: Edit

Authorities believe that the two bombs which were thrown (and failed to detonate) outside Gracie Mansion in NYC were part of an ISIL-inspired act of terrorism.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 02:50 pm: Edit

Howard: mistakes happen. You cannot expect a war to stop because someone made a mistake. You cannot declare the war a failure or a crime or a disaster or a mistake because a missile went wrong.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 03:03 pm: Edit

China: How War With China Starts
March 9, 2026: We surrender. That is what most Taiwanese believe will happen if China attacks. Despite that, there are many reasons why China fears the consequences of attacking Taiwan. China depends on foreign trade and is tied with the United States as the largest trading nation in the world. While losing access to Chinese products is a solvable problem for the Americans, it would be a disaster for China and its political leaders.
Seizing Taiwan could also be a disaster. Taiwan is the global leader in the production of key computer equipment. The advanced chip fabs/fabricators of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company make it the most important company in the world. If the fabs were disabled by war, the result would be worldwide economic depression. To avoid that Taiwan could arrange to move the Fabs and the personnel that operate the, to a safe country. South Korea, Australia or the United States wo8uld be glad to accept this transfer. Many other skilled or wealthy Taiwanese could also move somewhere else, and leave China with the prospect of capturing a hollowed out Taiwan and the enmity of the rest of the world.
Then there is the real prospect of an attempted invasion of Taiwan failing. For decades Taiwan has been building up its military. For example, seventeen years ago Taiwan was reducing its armed forces from 350,000 back then, to 275,000 now and 215,000 by 2014. At that point, the military would be all volunteer. Conscription has long been unpopular, and fewer troops will mean more money for new equipment.
Defending the island against Chinese attack is seen more a matter of technology than masses of troops. To that end, Taiwan has resumed development and production of the Hsiung Feng 2E cruise missile. This project was halted 17 months ago to appease China, but that didn't work. Taiwan has also developed its own laser guided bomb kits similar to the U.S. JDAM.
The Hsiung Feng 2E is a 5.8 meter long cruise missile that weighs a ton with a 205 kg warhead and has a top speed of 800 kilometers an hour. Max range is 600 kilometers. It uses inertial and GPS guidance. The Hsiung Feng 2E was developed from the Hsiung Feng 2 anti-ship missile. This was a smaller weapon (.685 ton), with a range of 160 kilometers. It entered service in the early 1990s, and by the late 1990s, developers were working on turning it into a cruise missile. The Hsiung Feng 2E can be launched from ships or from land and can threaten Chinese targets several hundred kilometers inland. At the same time the U.S. refused a Taiwanese request to buy 60 F-16 fighters, because China was very much opposed to it. So Taiwan began building more weapons that it has designed itself. This included submarines. And eventually got the F-16s anyway.
Faced with the prospect of an empty victory and retaliation from the rest of the world, Chinese leaders may respond to the Taiwanese attitude of surrendering with an attitude of, why bother? Attacking Taiwan risks much with the prospect of little gain.
FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 03:04 pm: Edit

Air Weapons: French Drones For Ukraine
March 9, 2026: France is building long range drones for Ukraine. Details were not revealed, but the same French firm produced an AAROK long-distance drone with a 22 meter wingspan carrying a payload of about three tons. This can be fuel, missiles or real-time video monitoring cameras. France has been sending thousands of locally made drones to Ukraine. These include 2,000 of the French UX11 kamikaze drones. France also developed and built the UX11 known as Colibri, which is a loitering munition that weighs 1.5 kg, has a 1.1m wingspan top speed of 60 kilometers an hour and an endurance of 45 minutes. UX11 is battery powered and propeller driven. It has an effective range of five kilometers from the operator and can reach altitudes of up to 2,000 meters. The operator uses the video link with the UX11 to search for a target. When one is found the drone dives into it, exploding on contact. The explosives carried are equivalent to several hand grenades and sufficient to damage or destroy unarmored targets, including groups of soldiers. These initial models of the UX11 cost about $23,000 each. Once UX11 enters mass production that cost will come down to under a thousand dollars each. French manufacturer KNDS, like so many other NATO weapons manufacturers, is donating new products to Ukraine to see how their products perform in combat.
France has sent substantial military aid to Ukraine. One of the more popular and useful weapons was the Caesar truck-mounted 155mm artillery system. After receiving its first Caesar artillery systems, Ukraine found that this novel truck mounted 155mm howitzer was more effective than towed or conventional self-propelled artillery systems that ran on tracks, like a tank. That led Ukraine to purchase more Caesar systems from the French manufacturer. The French are producing at least a dozen Caesar systems a month. The manufacturer has also made several improvements and upgrades. These are often based on feedback from Ukrainian users. The changes include adapting Caesar for use on different types of trucks and upgrades to the fire control system that allow the use of different types of 155mm shells, including some that can hit targets fifty kilometers away accurately. This required upgrades to the fire control system to increase effectiveness of regular missions and as well as the accuracy of long-range missions. A semi-automatic loading system increases the rate of fire and requires less physical effort from the crew.
Ukraine found that their first Caesar systems were the key to developing more effective counter-battery fire to hamper enemy artillery operations. NATO was able to help with that because NATO also supplied very effective counter-battery radars that are used to calculate where enemy shells and rockets were coming from. This enabled the Ukrainians to fire back quickly, often while the Russian artillery was being moved to avoid counter-battery fire. Ukraine did this by developing a better fire control system that was much quicker to react using multiple well-dispersed individual guns and artillery rocket launchers, as well as their own drones that specialized in detecting targets, especially enemy artillery systems that were not firing. The Russians have nothing as effective as this and neither does NATO.
Ukraine has some of the best software engineers in the world and they mobilized after 2014 to improve Ukrainian military capabilities. An additional advantage was that many Ukrainian civilians in Russian-occupied areas kept their Ukraine cellphones and, once the invasion began, joined local clandestine networks to provide GPS locations for Russian troops, headquarters, and supply stockpiles. The corrupt and poorly led Russian forces were unable to deal with the Ukrainian target location and artillery advantage. This is a major reason why, by late 2022 the Russians were not just retreating but often running away from the advancing Ukrainian troops and their numerous artillery attacks on targets behind the front line.
These Ukrainian successes with artillery also revealed which artillery weapons were the most effective. The big winners were not armored self-propelled guns firing new, longer-range shells. The Ukrainians found that towed 155mm guns, like the M777 or truck mounted 155mm guns like Caesar were the best for supporting front line troops and counter-battery fire against enemy artillery near the front line. For more distant targets the best solution was systems like the American High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS. This was a truck-mounted system that carried either six guided 227mm diameter rockets with a range of 80 kilometers, or one or two larger guided rockets with ranges of up to 500 kilometers.
Western nations, especially the United States, have spent a lot of time and money trying to develop longer range shells and came up with larger armored self-propelled guns firing very expensive GPS-guided shells that could hit targets up to 70 kilometers away. The shorter barrel on the M777 and Caesar fired unguided shells out to 40 kilometers. This approach was a lot cheaper because M777 and Caesar were cheaper and more effective because both could set up quickly, fire several shells and then be gone in about a minute or two. That was quick enough to avoid counter-battery fire and the truck-based artillery systems were easier to keep operational. Plus, unguided shells are far cheaper than guided ones. Tracked armored vehicles require a lot more maintenance by the crew and need replacement parts, like new tracks to replace worn ones, more frequently as well as a lot more fuel. The armor was sometimes useful, but the truck mounted HIMARS system got a lot of battlefield experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere and found that some lightweight armor on the crew cabin was sufficient for protection from bullets and shell fragments. Truck mounted systems like Caesar often use this protected crew compartment feature as well.

FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 03:05 pm: Edit

Afghanistan: March Update
M arch 8, 2026: Currently, Pakistani forces are still carrying out airstrikes against Afghan cities and concentrations of Taliban fighters. At the same time, Afghanistan still has problems with Islamic terrorists based inside the country in areas that border Pakistan and Iran. The Afghan government is not yet strong enough to suppress these terrorists or maintain peace throughout the country. Trade with Iran continues uninterrupted, despite the American and Israeli airstrikes against the Iranian military forces and military and government leadership.
Last year Afghanistan had a ten-day war with Pakistan. That compelled Pakistan to carry out air raids on the Afghan capital Kabul and several other cities. There were about 500 dead and wounded. The IEA/Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has been trying to rule the country since 2021 and is having a hard time controlling, much less governing, the entire country. The Pakistani Taliban/TTP, has its bases in Afghanistan on the Pakistan border. TTP is popular in that area and the IEA has been unable or unwilling to eliminate them.
In 2024 the country is suffering from hunger with half the population getting insufficient food. The Taliban enforced strict dress codes for women and prohibited women from working outside the home. Most women no longer have access to healthcare.
All this began back in 2021 when the elected IRA/Islamic Republic of Afghanistan collapsed and was replaced by the Pakistan-backed IEA. It was the Pakistan military that backed the Taliban and the Afghan heroin cartels. Over the last few years, the Pakistan military had found a way to run the government without a coup and all the resulting criticism and sanctions. The defeat of the IRA was accomplished via corruption, intimidation, disruption of the economy and a bungled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The original withdrawal plan was for a thousand or more U.S. and NATO troops to remain to advise and train the IRA security forces and monitor the corruption. The IRA wanted to survive but to do that they had to keep receiving billions a year from foreign donors, mainly the United States. Refusal to cooperate meant termination of aid and nearly all the foreigners would leave. The Americans got a new government in early 2021 and that led to fatal changes to the withdrawal plan. Everyone was ordered out but was given three additional months to do it. That gave Pakistan and the Taliban an opportunity to increase their pressure on the IRA, which now believed the Americans were going to abandon them.
The new IEA declared a great victory but found that few people, not even most Afghans, saw this as a win. Foreign aid ceased. Nearly $10 billion of IRA cash, held in foreign banks in an effort to reduce corruption, was frozen and no one would recognize the IEA as the successor to the IRA. Several countries designated Afghanistan as a terrorist organization. For the people of Afghanistan, especially the women, that designation seemed appropriate.
The 21st century saw substantial railroad construction. Before that there were less than 25 kilometers off track, most of it for use by foreign companies investing in Afghanistan. Currently there are 400 kilometers of track and more is being added each year. The primary use of current lines is to move cargo from an Iranian port, via an Iranian railroad, into Afghanistan. This liberates Afghanistan from dependence on road traffic from Pakistan. The other major railroad brings in cargo from Central Asia.
Drug production in Afghanistan continues and depends on the Pakistan military for support. The drugs are winning as they usually do wherever they get established. There are not too many narco-states because they all follow the same script. Eventually locals get fed up with the local violence and the growing number of addicts. That leads to more violence and the drug gangs are crushed although usually not completely eliminated. Eventually can take a long time and such is the case with Afghanistan. Compare that to how it worked in Colombia from 2000 on, and Burma after World War II and Iran in the 1950s. The only thing that nearly everyone in Afghanistan can agree on is that opium and heroin are bad. Nearly ten percent of the population is addicted to drugs, mostly opiates and another ten percent make a better living or get rich from the drug trade. Most Afghans consider drug gangs the biggest threat and these are largely run and staffed, like the IEA, by Pushtun tribesmen from four southern provinces. The Pakistan-backed Afghan Taliban have created a heroin-producing Islamic terrorist and gangster sanctuary in Afghanistan. If you want to know how that works, look at Chechnya in the late 1990s and Somalia or Yemen in the early 21st century. No one has come up with any cheap, fast, or easy solution for that. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's core problem is that there is no Afghanistan, merely a collection of tribes more concerned with tribal issues than anything else. The IEA runs Kabul, the largest city in Afghanistan, but not much else.

FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, March 09, 2026 - 03:05 pm: Edit

Paramilitary: Singapore Straits Piracy Escalates
March 9, 2026: We surrender. That is what most Taiwanese believe will happen if China attacks. Despite that, there are many reasons why China fears the consequences of attacking Taiwan. China depends on foreign trade and is tied with the United States as the largest trading nation in the world. While losing access to Chinese products is a solvable problem for the Americans, it would be a disaster for China and its political leaders.
Seizing Taiwan could also be a disaster. Taiwan is the global leader in the production of key computer equipment. The advanced chip fabs/fabricators of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company make it the most important company in the world. If the fabs were disabled by war or, as Taiwan has threatened, by Taiwan blowing them up upon being invaded, the result would be worldwide economic depression. US Treasury Secretary Bessent has stated this. To avoid that Taiwan could arrange to move the fabs and the personnel that operate them to a safe country. South Korea, Australia or the United States would be glad to accept this transfer. Taiwan is unlikely to do so as that would be an invitation for the West to abandon them to China. Many other skilled or wealthy Taiwanese could also move somewhere else and leave China with the prospect of capturing a hollowed out Taiwan and the enmity of the rest of the world. The ensuing worldwide depression would also destroy the ability and willingness of the world to pay for Chinese exports and thereby destroy China’s economy along with the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
Then there is the real prospect of an attempted invasion of Taiwan failing. For decades Taiwan has been building up its military. For example, seventeen years ago Taiwan was reducing its armed forces from 350,000 back then, to 275,000 now and 215,000 by 2014. At that point, the military would be all-volunteer. Conscription has long been unpopular, and fewer troops will mean more money for new equipment.
Defending the island against Chinese attack is seen more a matter of technology than masses of troops. To that end, Taiwan has resumed development and production of the Hsiung Feng 2E cruise missile. This project was halted 17 months ago to appease China, but that didn't work. Taiwan has also developed its own laser guided bomb kits similar to the U.S. JDAM.
The Hsiung Feng 2E is a 5.8 meter long cruise missile that weighs a ton with a 205 kg warhead and has a top speed of 800 kilometers an hour. Max range is 600 kilometers. It uses inertial and GPS guidance. The Hsiung Feng 2E was developed from the Hsiung Feng 2 anti-ship missile. This was a smaller weapon (0.685 ton), with a range of 160 kilometers. It entered service in the early 1990s, and by the late 1990s, developers were working on turning it into a cruise missile. The Hsiung Feng 2E can be launched from ships or from land and can threaten Chinese targets several hundred kilometers inland. At the same time the U.S. refused a Taiwanese request to buy 60 F-16 fighters, because China was very much opposed to it. So Taiwan began building more weapons that it has designed itself. This included submarines. And eventually got the F-16s anyway.
Faced with the prospect of an empty victory and retaliation from the rest of the world, Chinese leaders may respond to the Taiwanese attitude of surrendering with an attitude of, why bother? Attacking Taiwan risks much with the prospect of little gain.
FYEO