[IsraelTimes] The capture of the Red Sea port of Mokha and a strategic island by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen brings their forces to the heart of a key choke point for the global economy: the Bab el-Mandeb Strait leading out of the Red Sea.
The Houthis took Mokha on Thursday and on Friday captured Mayun, also known as Perim, off Yemen’s coast, two officials said, in a swift advance that extends their reach near one of the world’s key commercial lanes.
The strait had been a vital route for crude oil supplies from Saudi Arabia to Asia after shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was restricted due to threat of Iranian attack — until Houthi targeting of Saudi tankers largely ended that safety valve.
The Houthi advance is focusing renewed attention on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and further risks to shipping there, despite efforts by the Houthis to reassure shipowners that vessels other than those covered by their embargo on Saudi-linked shipping remain safe.
BAB EL-MANDEB HAD SERVED A KEY WORKAROUND FOR SAUDI OIL EXPORTS
The Strait of Hormuz was long the main highway for Saudi oil. But when Iran choked off most ship traffic at the Strait of Hormuz, the Saudis ramped up shipments through a pipeline running across the desert to Yanbu on the Red Sea.
Oil loaded on tankers in Yanbu could head out of the Red Sea through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and then east to Asia. That helped the Saudis maintain a share of their exports to customers there.
The Saudi Ministry of Energy said Friday that it had shut down the pipeline as "a precautionary measure" after it was attacked the previous day but did not specify who carried out the attacks.
The Red Sea route helped keep global oil prices in check, along with other improvised alternatives. In recent weeks the US military has guided tankers through the Strait of Hormuz in defiance of Iranian demands that ships pass through a vetting lane near the Iranian coastline. And the United Arab Emirates has used a pipeline to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman to skirt the Strait of Hormuz.
Houthi attacks on shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait started in late 2023 over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, leading many companies to abandon the route because of safety concerns. Traffic overall remains down some 60% from levels before then, although it remains a key freight route for goods moving between Asia and Europe.
Alternate routes have helped restore much of the Middle East oil flows
In August, alternative routes helped restore some two-thirds of the roughly 15 million barrels that transited Hormuz before the war. That took some of the economic pressure off the US amid politically sensitive higher gas prices ahead of the midterm elections.
However, Houthi threats have weighed heavily on Saudi oil exports in the Red Sea. In August, Red Sea oil loadings fell from 3.8 million barrels per day to 2.2 million barrels per day, according to the International Energy Agency. Overall, Saudi supply fell 2.3 million barrels per day to 6 million barrels, the lowest in three decades, according to the IEA.
By now, "Saudi shipping has largely routed away from this risk anyway," said Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd’s List.
While the Houthi advance "doesn’t change the immediate risk profile" because Saudi and Israeli shipping is already high risk, it does raise the question of whether the Houthis, who have insisted that other shipping is safe, will expand their threats if they face further attack, Meade said.
"It puts the Houthis in a strong position to take further control if they want to," he said.
Meanwhile, increased attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz this week have put use of the US route on hold. Iran said it attacked 10 ships there Wednesday after the US hit five Iranian tankers.
THE SUEZ CANAL IS A WORKAROUND FOR THE WORKAROUND
With the Houthis threatening Bab el-Mandeb, Saudi tankers have turned northwest instead of southeast from Yanbu and headed for the Suez Canal.
Tankers that are too big to pass through the canal have offloaded oil at Ain Sokhna in Egypt to a pipeline to Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean coast, where the oil is picked up by tanker. Some 70% of Yanbu crude exports are now heading that way, either by pipeline or by tanker, according to Lloyd’s.
That, however, is a time-consuming and expensive workaround for customers in Asia, since ships must then transit the Mediterranean, pass the Strait of Gibraltar and sail around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. The Suez route enables the Saudis to redirect as much as 3 million barrels per day.
But that more than doubles transit time to an Asian destination like South Korea, from 24 days to 54 days, according to senior research analyst Victoria Grabenwöger at energy data firm Kpler.
That adds to the cost, given that tankers cost tens of thousands of dollars per day to charter even in normal times, while prices have risen in some cases above $100,000 per day during the current global energy turmoil.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
09/12/2026 12:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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"The United States became a total petroleum net exporter in 2020
In 2020, the United States became a net exporter of petroleum for the first time since at least 1949.1 In 2022, total petroleum exports were about 9.52 million barrels per day (b/d) and total petroleum imports were about 8.33 million b/d, making the United States an annual net total petroleum exporter for the third year in a row. "
"Shares of U.S. petroleum imports from OPEC and Persian Gulf countries have declined, and the share of imports from Canada has increased."
[NYP] Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were caught yukking it up during the somber reading of 9/11 victims at Ground Zero during the 25th anniversary service Friday.
The New York City Democratic Socialists of America darlings appeared all smiles in a live feed of the ceremony, interspersed with shots of a man cradling his head in his arms and bawling his eyes out while friends and family read out the names of their departed loved ones from the podium.
Pointed reactions online to the apparent show of disrespect at the site where thousands of Americans were murdered by terrorists were quick to emerge.
"Why the f—k are these two laughing?!?" Meghan McCain, former "The View" host and daughter of late GOP Sen. John McCain, wrote on X.
"How the hell do you laugh while the names of those murdered on 9/11 are being read aloud? Why would you do so?" wondered Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.
#3
I despise both of them and it was certainly in poor taste, which isn't surprising either, but they were young children (Mamdani almost 10, AOC almost 11) when 9/11 happened and AI says neither has ever mentioned losing anyone close.
[Reuters] The White House is weighing how to use the Defense Production Act to expand U.S. oil refining capacity as the conflict with Iran exposes the country's vulnerability to global crude supply disruptions and price spikes, according to two sources familiar with the administration's plans.
Considering such an extraordinary step highlights how the Trump administration is under growing pressure to show it can contain the impact of surging fuel prices on consumers and businesses ahead of November's midterm elections.
The proposal to use the act came up during a recent meeting between President Donald Trump and nearly a dozen U.S. refiners, where White House officials sought to determine how federal support could best be used to add capacity, the sources said. No final decisions were made, and participants left the meeting with the expectation that the conversations would continue, according to the sources.
Refining executives told officials that federal money would be better directed toward making refineries more efficient or expanding existing plants rather than financing an entirely new refinery, which would be considerably more costly and take years to complete, the sources said.
The Defense Production Act, considered a tool of last resort that has never been used to add refining capacity, gives Trump broad powers to direct industrial resources and provide financial incentives for companies to expand production of materials deemed important to national defense. The latest discussions build on a presidential determination issued in April that authorized the use of the act to support and expand U.S. petroleum production, refining and logistics capacity.
The United States is one of the world's largest oil refining powers, with a vast network of plants capable of processing millions of barrels of crude a day, but the national average diesel price has climbed above $6 a gallon for the first time and gasoline prices remain elevated.
REFINING CAPACITY NEAR MAXIMUM LEVELS
U.S. refiners are already running near full tilt, with utilization reaching 98%, according to the latest data. The high utilization underscores the challenge facing the administration: refiners are producing at near-capacity levels, but tight global supplies and strong demand are keeping fuel prices high.
U.S. refining capacity has also declined over the past decade as unprofitable plants have shut, concentrating more of the nation's refining capacity on the Gulf Coast.
In recent weeks, the White House has increasingly pointed to expanding domestic refining capacity when asked how it plans to respond to fuel-price spikes caused by the Iran conflict, making the push both a longer-term effort to buffer against global supply disruptions and part of its broader response to affordability concerns ahead of the elections.
The administration is also pushing to increase access to foreign oil supplies.
Trump recently secured a 35% U.S. government equity stake in North American Blue Energy Partners, a private Venezuelan oil company that received rights to develop 17 oil fields with about 65 billion barrels of proven reserves. The agreement gives the U.S. government rights to purchase Venezuelan crude, including 20% of the company's output at production cost.
The White House says millions of barrels of new Venezuelan production will eventually be processed through U.S. refineries.
TEST CASE
A proposed new refinery in Brownsville, Texas, has emerged as a test case for Trump's call to expand U.S. refining capacity. It was unclear whether the project would receive any Defense Production Act funding.
America First Refining plans to build a 168,000-barrel-per-day facility at the Port of Brownsville, which Trump announced in March as the first new U.S. refinery in nearly 50 years. The project is backed by India's Reliance Industries, which has agreed to a 20-year deal to buy the refinery's output.
The project also has ties to Trump's family and administration. Donald Trump Jr. is a passive minority investor in America First Refining, according to company and investor disclosures reported by ProPublica, while Cantor Fitzgerald, whose founder Howard Lutnick is Trump's commerce secretary, is serving as financial adviser to the company, according to company announcements.
#1
The shortage of oil refineries in this country is a very old (self inflicted) problem. A "problem" for some, but an effective marketing tool for others.
#2
^^ Exactly, Visitor, it's an old problem, same with approving nuclear plants. I think only one has been approved/commissioned since the creation of the AEC/NRC.
US News: 'December 1941: 31 Day That Changed America and Saved the World' by author Craig Shirley.
Three days before the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt was warned in a memo from naval intelligence that Tokyo's military and spy network was focused on Hawaii, a new and eerie reminder of FDR's failure to act on a basket load of tips that war was near.
In the newly revealed 20-page memo from FDR's declassified FBI file, the Office of Naval Intelligence on December 4 warned, "In anticipation of open conflict with this country, Japan is vigorously utilizing every available agency to secure military, naval and commercial information, paying particular attention to the West Coast, the Panama Canal and the Territory of Hawaii."
#5
When provocations are necessary, provocations will be found. BTW, as you are undoubtedly aware, Poland never invaded Germany. This was a false claim by an Austrian home decorator.
#10
Yes at #7. Particularly adept at sending others up the hill first.
A Highland Brigade participated in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa, under the command of Major General Andrew Gilbert Wauchope. It suffered severe losses at the battle Magersfontein (including General Wauchope). Command of the Brigade was then given to Major General Hector MacDonald who led the brigade throughout the remainder of the war. The Brigade fought at the Battle of Paardeberg where on 18 February 1900 (known as Bloody Sunday) it again suffered heavy casualties.
#12
Bill Clinton was too busy with Monica Lewinsky and flooding California with illegal aliens to worry about bin Laden.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
09/12/2026 13:04 Comments ||
Top||
#13
There are always warnings. The question is whether the warning is detailed enough to be actionable, on top of whetherthe signal gets through the noise.
I don’t blame them for missing one warning in the midst of dozens or hundreds of equally vague warnings, but what they do after something finally happens.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Yazidi armed group operating in Shingal (Sinjar) will hand over its weapons to the Iraqi state, with “qualified” fighters to be integrated into the security forces, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced on Friday, in a move that could reshape the district's fragmented security landscape.
Zaidi received a delegation from the Yazidi Cause Alliance and the leadership of the Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) in Baghdad on Friday.
The YBS is a Yazidi armed group with close ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which dissolved itself last year and decided to lay down arms as part of a peace process with Ankara.
"We announced that the Sinjar resistance factions will begin handing over their weapons to the state, and that Mount Sinjar will be under the full authority of the federal government and its security and administrative institutions, emphasizing that restricting weapons to the hands of the state and unifying security decision-making are fundamental to protecting the district's residents, consolidating its stability, and ensuring its future," said Zaidi in a statement following the meeting.
Zaidi stressed that the state will guarantee the rights of members of the YBS members and “recognize their sacrifices, by regularizing their status and integrating those who qualify into Iraq’s security institutions in accordance with legal and official frameworks.”
Posted by: badanov ||
09/12/2026 00:00 ||
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[137 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iraq
[INN] The Gaza Division's intelligence officer on October 7, 2023, Lt. Col. A., is expected to petition the Supreme Court in the coming days in an effort to prevent the publication of his full name and the disclosure of the petition in which he presented his version of the failures surrounding the massacre, Galei Zahal (Army Radio) reported.
Lt. Col. A. is simultaneously waging a legal battle against the decision to dismiss him from the IDF. He is the only officer whom the IDF Chief of Staff decided to dismiss over the events of October 7, but he is still serving in the military and has refused to retire as required.
The separate legal proceeding concerns a District Court decision permitting the publication of his full name and the petition he filed.
In that petition, he presents his account of the events and the failures of October 7, in which he was involved by virtue of his position as the Gaza Division's intelligence officer.
And why were the officers who berated the women Gaza fence observers not arrested and dismissed from the IDF for refusing to listen to their warnings for nearly a week before Oct. 7, with one of them stating he would order a court martial for her “nuisance” calls? There is still huge rot in the upper echelons of the IDF that has never been dealt with.
"Nuisance" or deliberate avoidance acknowledgment ?
The infuriated West can sit on a rusty fence pole and rotate — they’ve been actively supporting the Palestinians who want to eradicate Israel and finish what Hitler started.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Leonid Tsukanov
[Regnum] Israel is escalating its settlement policy. From semi-legal "shepherd" communities in the West Bank, it is gradually moving toward the construction of a full-fledged neighborhood that will bisect the Palestinian territories there.
This approach does not please Europe, which, in retaliation, is trying to punish its Middle Eastern partner with the ruble for undermining the foundations of Palestinian-Israeli peaceful coexistence.
Israel mocks the Europeans and believes that US intervention will help bring the ambitious settlement project to fruition. However, Washington is gradually developing a different opinion.
INFILTRATION TACTICS
The problem of illegal settlements in the West Bank has been going on since the mid-1990s, when Israeli authorities began to tacitly encourage the gradual “infiltration” of individual motivated settlers into Judea and Samaria (as Israelis call this territory) and their subsequent establishment on the “historical land.”
By that time, Israel had already signed the Oslo Accords and agreed to work toward disengagement from the Palestinians, but this did nothing to stop the shadowy expansion. Most of the outposts and settlements were located in the so-called gray zone and were not considered independent administrative units.
Israeli politicians criticized the settlers from high platforms, but secretly advised them on where to set up their next camp to avoid excessive persecution. The settlers effectively exploited the gaps in the agreements and created nomadic camps consisting of a few trailers parked on high ground.
Such sites weren't legally considered full-fledged settlements. However, by the time the first houses were laid and restrictions came into effect, the settlers had already established themselves and formed a community, and were therefore able to resist the locals even without the help of the authorities.
Everything changed in 2023,
Yes.
after the Hamas attack on Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu's government used the Gaza crisis as an excuse to legitimize settlement policy and turn it into a tool of pressure on all Palestinian factions, including those relatively loyal to the Jewish state.
During the three years of the conflict (from October 2023 to September 2026), Israelis established a total of more than 200 settlements – almost 60% of the total number of illegal settlements in the West Bank during this period.
Among Israelis, the new strategy was informally dubbed the "shepherd's push," as farmers and livestock breeders flocked to the West Bank to establish farmland in the disputed territories.
Such settlements didn't require large investments, but they helped pioneers quickly settle in and establish themselves. They also linked them to Israel's legal system through a livestock registration system, facilitating the settlement's subsequent legitimization.
Moreover, some settlers entered the West Bank with the army, and while security forces were busy rounding up Hamas loyalists in Jenin and other cities, they established several forward outposts in these areas. The boundaries of some of these outposts ran through the territory of former Palestinian villages, some of which had not yet been abandoned by local residents.
Things reached the point where the Jewish state's authorities at one point completely stopped denying Palestinian claims to territory. In July 2025, the Knesset (parliament) gave this course an ideological underpinning by passing a resolution calling on the government to extend the country's sovereignty to all of Judea and Samaria and thus finally "reclaim" the West Bank.
And although the government has publicly skirted the issue, the very fact of the document's adoption has given the settlers confidence that the authorities are now on their side.
CONSTRUCTION OF DISCORD
Over the years, the settlement issue gradually became a routine part of Israeli policy, and Western elites eventually stopped paying attention to it. Statements defending Palestinian rights became routine.
Even after the 2023 crisis and the rise of anti-Israeli sentiment in the EU, the issue of a “shepherd’s push” into the West Bank was avoided.
However, by early autumn 2026, the situation had escalated dramatically. This was prompted by Israeli officials' decision to issue a tender for construction in the area between East Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim, populated by Bedouin communities (the so-called "E1" area). The ambitious project, first unveiled in the 1990s, envisions the construction of a large "network of homes, offices, and roads" over an area of approximately 13 square kilometers.
The first phase is planned to commission approximately 1,200 residential units. The full project envisions the construction of 3,500 homes, which (given the allocated area) will create a virtually continuous line of Israeli buildings and integrate existing outposts into the urban planning system of the Jewish state.
The announced development undermines the very foundations of the "Two Peoples, Two States" concept: Israeli development of E1 effectively divides the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. This, in turn, significantly complicates the creation of a territorially unified Palestinian state.
Interestingly, the tendering process is expected to be completed by October 19, 2026, so that contractors can begin preparatory work before the Knesset elections.
Thus, the Israeli right has taken additional precautions: even if they are defeated, their successors will have to expend considerable effort to cancel the "project of the century." Given the complexity of the national legal system, the next government may not even dare to litigate against the tender winners.
Word of Israel's plans to "reclaim" parts of Palestinian territory quickly reached Europe, where it exploded like a bomb. Unlike the "shepherding push" and "infiltration" of settlers, which have also accelerated in recent months, the current project is directly linked to the authorities of the Jewish state.
Its apologists include National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, as well as other high-ranking politicians, including those involved in the construction project through their business contacts. For example, the Libi brothers, who organized the supply of prefabricated homes to settlers in the West Bank.
Europe reacted with demonstrably harsh force: 11 countries, including Britain, France, and Spain, announced measures against Israel—personal sanctions against settlers, restrictions on cooperation with companies participating in controversial tenders, and a revision of the procurement basket.
Canada later announced a large-scale boycott of Israeli companies in solidarity with the EU and Britain. Furthermore, Brussels reinstated the initiative to revise the EU-Israel Association Agreement and threatened "even more decisive steps" if the Israelis did not halt their expansion.
Even Germany, which in recent years had advocated for the Jewish state within the EU, eventually joined the group of accusers. Berlin deemed the construction of the "E1" neighborhood, closed to Palestinians, in the middle of Palestine "ethically unjustifiable."
DOES THE US MIND?
Israel reacted to European sanctions with marked sarcasm—some politicians even attempted to mirror the European approach and retaliate.
For example, Ben-Gvir publicly appealed to Netanyahu to officially recognize the Falkland Islands as British-occupied Argentine territory and impose restrictions against London. Meanwhile, a spontaneous flash mob of protests against Europe has erupted among companies associated with the leaders of the settler movement.
However, this is more of a grandstanding act. Israel still relies on US support for its West Bank development—especially since Donald Trump previously allowed its Middle Eastern ally to expand its "living space."
Following the European-Canadian demarche, Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a special press conference, at which he assured that the American administration considers sanctions potentially destabilizing and does not intend to ban imports of products from Israeli settlements.
At the same time, Washington's reaction has become more edgy over time. Specifically, in early September, US emissaries pressured Netanyahu to tone down the West Bank and dismantle about a hundred impromptu outposts, the installation of which had not been approved by the authorities. This was intended to demonstrate to a hesitant electorate that the Jewish state retains political flexibility.
The United States also fears that the rapid radicalization of settlers and their transformation into a battering ram in the West Bank will lead to nothing good. After all, negative precedents are mounting month after month: loyalists are attacking not only local Bedouins but also Israeli police and counterintelligence operatives, and attempting to raid army depots under the guise of Palestinian outcasts.
Moreover, compassionate far-right philanthropists are gradually supplying settlers with increasingly sophisticated self-defense tools. Among other things, thermal imaging cameras and hexacopters (the latter can easily be retrofitted with munitions-dropping systems) are gradually becoming part of the West Bank's arsenal.
If the current momentum continues, communities may emerge as fully-fledged militias that will act at their own discretion.
This, in turn, risks spreading the Gaza crisis to all of historic Palestine, and, as a consequence, nullifying the Trump team's peacemaking efforts.
Moreover, "initiative settlement" gradually began to damage the US's reputation on the ground. For example, in late August, a group of Jewish rioters associated with the settlers raided the village of Turmus Aya, most of whose residents were American citizens, killing and wounding several people.
The attack was allegedly part of a strategy to displace the local population to build a new Israeli outpost. Washington perceived the incident as an attack on the interests of American citizens and demanded that Netanyahu "solve the problem," hinting through Ambassador Mike Huckabee that if he disobeyed, the United States might change its rhetoric on the West Bank.
However, the Israeli leadership is currently viewing Washington's signals more as a posture and is in no hurry to revise its settler policy, or to cancel the tender for the E1 neighborhood.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
