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China has supplied Iran with a modest number of missiles in recent months - but those Chinese shipments have probably been a lot less than Iran lost in the 12 Day War with Israel in June 2025. It's reported that Iran had reserves of around 2500 missiles before the 12 Day War, but lost around 1000 of them to war use and damage from Israeli strikes. There are reports the Iranian missile stockpile has returned to something like 2000 missiles. Sending those missiles off at a decent rate will reduce their stockpile, as they couldn't build them as fast as they fire them off, in a decent punch-up. However, Iran still has a dangerous number of major missile-building facilities, and a refined missile-building capacity, with a number of hardened underground manufacturing facilities. The bottom line is that Iran is dependent on raw supplies of dual-use electronics, sodium perchlorate for rocket fuel, and more than likely, goodly amounts of steel for missile casings - and China is their major and eager supplier. There are agreements in place to keep the missile raw materials flowing from China, but whether they will continue with an Iranian administration and military forces in some level of disarray, remains to be seen. China is accepting payment for all this military support in Iranian crude. Iran is in a bit of a bind as regards blocking the Straits of Hormuz for lengthy periods, because it needs the Straits open to be able to ship crude to China and the rest of the world. Iran will try to seriously disrupt international shipping in the Straits, mainly to drive up oil prices, and make the American war effort more costly to them, and to try and disrupt the U.S. economy by sharply increased oil prices. Of course, sharply increased oil prices only benefit Iran, when it comes to oil income.

Old German joke: a man goes to a newsstand every day and looks at just the front pages of all the newspapers. The guy behind the stand asks him what he's looking for. "An obituary". "But Herr Mien, obituaries aren't on the front page!" "The one I'm looking for will be.""

A couple of things. 1. Who supplied Iran with the ballistic missiles? 2. If you have seen any vision of teh people of Iran celebrating in the streets over the weekend, did you notice that there were no women to be seen?

It appears the U.K. DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) requires specific character heights (64mm), widths (44mm), and font thickness (10mm) on British motorcycle numberplates. Accordingly, the required character size, spacing, and margins results in a standard large size, most commonly 9 inches by 7 inches, or approximately 228mm x 178mm. In addition, the large rear plate holder acts as an extended mudguard, reducing spray and road grime being flung up the riders back, from the rear wheel.

My guess, the yanks have once again just created another new Bin Lardin - however that's spelt - and the world can now look forward to terrorism tripling from here.

er.. specsavers is a UK brand.... My guess is fixed speen cameras have been around a long time and they had to be that size to be read.. Or maybe an EU thing, as German, French, and Italian seem to be similar sizes.

I think the regime change in 2021 worked wonders.. Sadly it reverted in 2025.

Maybe you don't have Specsavers in the UK.

Jerry, I'm curious, what's the deal with those roadsign sized numberplates on bikes in the UK. Here in Queensland we have plates 7&1/2" x 4".

Scuse btw, yet another rant in circles, don't mind me this shyts just doin my head in.

Even so , he won't even touch Putin, it's been pathetic to watch. And so the bully still rings true as he instead tries again and again to blame and push Z and Ukr around yet welcomes Putin like a giggling school girl.

There is a slight difference. Putin controls the world's biggest nuclear force and Iran probably doesn't have one to their name. Nobody really knows how many of Putin's crackers will actually work when the time comes, but I don't think anyone wants to find out.

It used to be that the POTUS had to seek the approval of Congress before declaring war. But that was back in the day when the USA was a democracy.

In a later update, the Ayatollah's son was not killed, but his son-in-law and daughter-in-law were killed.

l feel like an absolute idiot l keep coming back to the same thing l know it butttt, how in hell can l make up my mind 1st of all, in whether or not to just keep my 1/2hec place and just live here. Financially it's perfect, l'd be set rest of my life, living free, saving a truckload anddd, it's a lovely little property. Yet other than renting elsewhere which l don't even know if l'd like tbh, l might even regret it especially if l sold this place but getting into something else now in even buying, is going to ruin finances, probably for yrs. Prices out there are just insane. Most of you guys sound long time very well established so you probably can't appreciate just how mad the market is. But then ofc above all, surely happiness is at the top too. That's the tricky part though and holding up the whole show. Sometimes it's a pleasure just being here, coming home to it, even waking up here, it can all be very very nice and without really knowing anyone so just from observation so far but people seem v chill too. At others though, it can l find get very very lonely here and my place is quite private to so if you don't go out thee gate you have zero contact with anyone. You can see through trees to streets just 50mtrs over and the pubs only 50mtrs out and around the corner but on the property itself, you could run around naked, wouldn't matter. One way or another though, can not for the life of me make a decision. Can't buy or try something else without selling this place well, apart from renting somewhere. Don't wanna waste even more time just doing that though unless it was a fully done decision or l'd just go to all that trouble and expense, effort, move, for nothing. l'm usually pretty snappy in deciding things but this one, has me stumped .

Dunno much about anything in the middle east admittedly, it's all that damn entwined and goes back 1000s of yrs. Long as l can remember they've always been fighting, all hate ea other. l dunno about Trump though, never have. He disgusts me in many ways but in this stuff, 1st thing comes to mind whatever else is goin on there is that it's just yet another tiny country where he knows they couldn't possibly lose yettttt, look at the way he treats Putin. But yet again bullies the little guy and Ukraine ! He should've taken Putin out just like these other two yrs ago. Putin's been harassing Europe, attacking countries killed millions of people, not to mention windows and aeroplanes and threatening the whole damn world decades , yet Trump too gutless to touch him it's sickening, while Putins still at it as we speak.

Listen to what our mate Stephen Fry says about A.I.

I dunno.. the regime change in 2021 in the US was a big improvement, I thought.

A bit of an update. The mechanic who I had look at the bike when I purchased it seems to have cut few corners, although the amount of rain we have had and the distances I cover may have something to do with it. The grips were wired direct to the battery, presumably as they detech the voltage that indicates the battery is not charging and then decide to cut out automagically - allegedly. As the bloke who jump started me said, the shoudl be wired into the fuse box. I decided, on a recommendation, to give another local mechanic a look. He said the same thing and that the heated grips were notorious for the controllers losing the ability to self-switch off. Then he pointed out wither the gripes weren't glued to the bars, not enough was used, or some inferior gluwe was used as he was able to move the grips around the bar. Then he pointed out a few things, including completely worn front sprockets, all of which I asked the last mechanic to look out for. And, to boot, the rear disc needs replacement.. which is better than the wheel bearing, which is what I thought could be the problem. He pointed out everythign I asked the last mechanic to look out for. FFS. As I have 10 thumbs when it comes to engineering, I basically have to pay up. Which I was expecting most anyway. So, it goes into the shop tomorrow for its fix. But, I had ridden it to London and back, and am riding with the lad, still. And, it is great fun, even in the wet, with freezing hands, and a little less fuel economy than I was aiming for.

No regime change has resulted in improvement.

Getting rid of Trump would be a massive improvement

No regime change has resulted in improvement.

My son's 125cc bike gets 140mpg; I may have to start using it.

The problem now is that Iran is not a united country, never has been, and there are plenty of different groups within Iran ready to take over from the Ayatollahs - and fight each other for that dominant position. Look for a replication of Libya. The worst part is, the Iranians will be planning a revenge attack from out of left field, and that will likely be either an economic attack or a military attack. They will mine or block the Straits of Hormuz and make the whole world pay in terms of a vastly increased oil price. We can look forward to rising oil prices this week, simply due to the attack by the U.S. Then there's the fact that the Iranians are the worlds best missile experts, and we know little of what they have hidden. They could quite easily launch a large warhead missile at an American city, and even if it's not a nuke, they could cause a lot of grief. They're like an injured snake, it might look like it's fatally injured, but it can still possess a vicious bite and lash out, too.