Recent posts

[Ukraine accuses Hungary of taking seven people hostage]

#1

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Syt - March 05, 2026, 11:34:51 PM

WTF?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd03rj7n0nro

Ukraine accuses Hungary of taking seven people hostage

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has accused Hungarian authorities of taking hostage seven employees of Ukraine's state savings bank, Oschadbank.

Writing on X, Sybiha said: "Today in Budapest, Hungarian authorities took seven Ukrainian citizens hostage. The reasons are still unknown, as well as their current well-being."

The employees were in two cars carrying $80m (£60m) worth of cash between Austria and Ukraine. The authorities had sent a note demanding the employees' return, Sybiha said.

In a statement, Oschadbank said the employees "were unjustifiably detained in Hungary" and that GPS data showed their vehicles in Budapest. The BBC has contacted the Hungarian government for comment.

"The amount of valuables in the stolen cars amounted to 40 million US dollars, 35 million euros, 9 kg of gold," the Oschadbank statement continues.

"Oschadbank demands the immediate release of its employees and property and their return to Ukraine."

Hungary maintains close ties with Russia, and has consistently opposed military aid for Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for blocking a European aid package for Kyiv.

Orban has said Budapest will use "political and financial tools" to force Ukraine to reopen the Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungarian refineries.

Sybiha accused Hungary of "state terrorism and racketeering".

"We are talking about Hungary taking hostages and stealing money," Sybiha added on X.

Ukraine says the pipeline was damaged by Russian strikes last month and its repair crews have been injured by further attacks.

Druzhba is the main route for delivering Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia and shipments of Russian oil to both countries have been cut off since 27 January.

Hungary and ‌Slovakia, the only European �Union countries still importing Russian oil, accuse Ukraine of deliberately delaying the resumption of oil flows for political reasons.

#2

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Jacob - March 05, 2026, 10:41:39 PM

Yeah @Zanza and @OvB - maybe those missiles can't be brought to bear right now, but unless the regime falls or the missiles are completely destroyed, presumably they'll be properly deployed at some point in the future.

#3

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by Sophie Scholl - March 05, 2026, 10:04:45 PM

You cannot view this attachment.

#4

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Sophie Scholl - March 05, 2026, 10:03:48 PM

However give me a second to rage againt my party. The goddamn Democratic Party. What a bunch of fuckers. Even in a totally symbolic vote to curb the war powers of the President, which would have been vetoed anyway, we had fuckers breaking ranks to suck Trump cock.

All four are large AIPAC beneficiaries. Probably a total coincidence... 

#5

Off the Record / Re: Iran War?

Last post by Zanza - March 05, 2026, 09:45:05 PM

I read an interesting analysis that suggests Iran may have made a major strategic mistake in how it designed is ballistic missile system.

Years ago, Iran started storing a large % of their ballistic missiles in underground facilities dubbed "missile cities." Iran was very proud of these facilities and regularly would release videos from inside of them, basically showing these underground warehouses full of missiles--largely safe from any aerial bombing risk.

However, the reason this has become a problem--you can't launch missiles from an underground missile city. They have to be loaded onto a missile launcher and then moved out of the underground facility to a launch site. It appears Israel and the U.S. know where all these missile cities are. And it's also true that they are usually too deep for easy destruction via bombing.

But what is being done is they are now parking slow moving surveillance planes over the missile cities, and the second a missile launcher tries to drive out of the underground area, they notify the attack forces which immediately come in and destroy the missile launcher.

Israel and the U.S. have also been collapsing the entrances to the missile cities in some locations, effectively sealing their munitions underground.

One analysis in the WSJ suggested this was a strategic blunder by Iran--one of the big advantages of these mobile missile launchers is precisely that they are mobile. But if they have to go to well known "missile city" depots to get armed, they now have to centralize themselves instead of decentralize. Israel and the U.S. appear to have been effectively making it near impossible for Iran to make use of these missile cities, and in fact their very existence is making it much easier for the IDF and U.S. to destroy Iranian missile launchers, because the entire strategic premise of them forces the missile launchers to visit well known, centralized areas. That same analysis also said that in strategic terms--a missile launcher is much more valuable to Iran than missiles. Its production pipeline for missiles is easier to ramp up than it is for launchers, so as it is losing launchers trying to escape the missile cities it has limited means of producing more in the short term.

It isn't known exactly what % of Iran's ballistic missile stockpile are in missile cities, but it's believed to be a large chunk of the total.

My suspicion is the premise of the missile cities was an assumption of a more limited war with Israel in which Israel wouldn't have air superiority, e.g. it was insurance against a surprise attack destroying huge above ground missile stockpiles. It seems Iran didn't consider the implications if Israel attacked alongside the U.S. and established aerial supremacy, turning the missile cities into easily neutralized facilities.

Consequently this is likely the single biggest reason Iran's ballistic missiles launches have declined by 90% since war began last weekend.

For Israel in particular this is huge--Iran's ballistic missiles are the primary threat now that Iran poses to Israel (particularly since its Axis of Resistance is in tatters.)

Unfortunately for the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf Oil states, those areas are being hit primarily by Iran's cheaply made drones, the closer distances involved meaning it doesn't need to use its ballistic missiles to reliably hit targets in those locations.

Sounds plausible, but also means that just unilaterally stopping this war is not an option as Iran can then fix this strategic flaw and start moving and then using these systems. Permanent air supremacy surely is costly.

#6

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by DGuller - March 05, 2026, 09:41:54 PM

So, apparently the last straw was that Noem awarded a $65 million non-compete contract for something like "information services" to a company formed 8 days before the award.  The company's owner? Her husband.  She claimed that Trump approved the deal, but he denied it and that was the end of Noem. Some details might be a bit off: I was listening to this on the radio.

They're not even trying to hide anything.  I hope there will be Nuremberg trials after this administration falls.

#7

Off the Record / Re: What does a TRUMP presiden...

Last post by grumbler - March 05, 2026, 09:40:16 PM

So, apparently the last straw was that Noem awarded a $65 million non-compete contract for something like "information services" to a company formed 8 days before the award.  The company's owner? Her husband.  She claimed that Trump approved the deal, but he denied it and that was the end of Noem. Some details might be a bit off: I was listening to this on the radio.

#8

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Norgy - March 05, 2026, 09:18:24 PM

Wages, yes, transfer fees too. Sorry, man, we are both in football pain.   

#9

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Zoupa - March 05, 2026, 08:56:26 PM

Oh my

Having been there a few times in the last few years Spurs are in a lot of trouble.

They have been abysmal. It's really ruining my weekends, I can feel my blood pressure rise watching them play. I really need to not give a shit.

There's talk of sacking the interim manager. Are we fucking serious lads. The players really need to wise up.

God knows Levy was trash, but he did include in all player contracts that wages would be halved in case of demotion. I don't know how that doesn't motivate these fools.

#10

Off the Record / Re: Football (Soccer) Thread

Last post by Norgy - March 05, 2026, 08:40:38 PM

Forest have been abysmal most of the season. They did hammer Spurs fairly comfortably 3-0. If, and this is a big if, Tottenham get relegated, that is surely the most expensive relegation in history.

I wish Nuno's West Ham could just lie down and take the relegation, but no, they're on a great escape.

Forest put a spoke in the Man City wheel with a draw at the Etihad (a solid English name for a stadium) and what was possibly the goal of the season as Igor Jesus lays the ball off with a header and Morgan Gibbs White blindly backheels it home past a very poor Donnarumma.

I don't know what has happened at Spurs. They got rid of Ange, who is just a vacuum, appointed a seemingly good manager in Thomas Frank. Frank did not work out well, but it is not like managers are given the time generally. Wrexham have given Parkinson plenty of time and discarded the poorer results, and now are harvesting. Thing is, Parkinson is not a Championship manager, let alone an EPL manager.

The relegation fight is too tight to call, but I have to hope that Forest manage to stay up. At the end of the season, I expect an exodus of players. Anderson's surely moving to greener pastures, Gibbs White is under a long-term contract but has the relegation clause. Murillo is probably one of the top five defenders in the EPL, and signed a new contract in 2024. All are very hot property.