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🇸🇦💣 Houthis threaten to burn Saudi Arabia to the ground as war expands

💬 “We cannot accept Yemeni territory being turned into an open arena for confrontation while Saudi territory and interests remain immune from its repercussions. Our response will be commensurate” with the nature of aggression, Dr. Abdulaziz Saleh Bin Habtoor, the Houthi-led Yemeni government’s former prime minister and member of the Supreme Political Council has announced.

🗣 “The attempt to transfer the escalation to the Yemeni interior using low-grade local forces and mercenaries does not change the nature of Saudi complicity,” the official warned, adding that although Yemen has demonstrated in recent years that it is not seeking a return to war, it will not accept “the exploitation of a truce for mobilization or the imposition of new military realities on the ground.”

💬 “The shortest path to avoiding escalation remains clear: stop the mobilizations and hostile actions, and move from managing the crisis and exerting pressure on Yemen to addressing its causes and implementing the requirements of peace in a serious and responsible manner,” Habtoor stressed.

His comments follow reports of new Houthi attacks on an Aramco refinery in Jazan, Saudi Arabia and precision strikes on kingdom-backed forces in Marib and Mocha.

The dramatic escalation in Houthi-Saudi tensions follows last month’s attack on Saana’s International Airport during the arrival of an Iranian flight carrying high-ranking Houthi officials from the funeral of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei. The Houthis’ response has included a counterblockade on all Saudi oil shipping in the Red Sea, and strikes on the kingdom’s energy production.

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🇺🇸💣🇮🇷 US war aims in Iran shrink along with its military gains

The Trump administration's objectives in the Iran conflict have undergone a steady transformation over the past six months. What began with ambitious promises of regime change and complete Iranian surrender has now been reduced to a far more modest set of priorities.

Vice President JD Vance recently outlined the current goals in a Fox News appearance, placing energy price stability at the top of the list and relegating nuclear non-proliferation to second place. This marks a significant departure from the administration's earlier absolutist stance, CNN reports.

The list of US war aims has never been particularly consistent.

🔴 Different officials have offered varying combinations of objectives, with some including the destruction of Iran's missile infrastructure or the end of support for regional proxies, while others omitted these items entirely

🔴 Throughout the war, the Trump administration deliberately used vague language and avoided clear definitions of its war goals. This was driven both by a desire to maintain flexibility for the public image and by the objective impossibility of fulfilling the initial grandiose promises

Now, the administration seems to have settled on a far more pragmatic objective, which is essentially a return to the pre-war status quo: ensuring the Strait of Hormuz is open and maintaining stable oil prices. The emphasis on economic pressure reflects a realization that military force is unable to achieve the desired results.

The administration is returning to a familiar playbook, calling this latest effort "Operation Economic Fury."

🔶 Officials argue that months of bombing have pushed Iran's economy to a breaking point and that a suffocating combination of sanctions and naval blockade will force Tehran to capitulate.

🔶 President Trump has claimed that Iran is "broke," with "300% inflation" and no money to pay its soldiers, an assertion that exceeds the estimates cited by his own officials.

🔶 The strategy is to target Iran's oil revenues by tightening the noose on its remaining export channels, including the possibility of sanctioning major buyers like China, which accounts for over 90% of Iran's oil exports.

However, this return to a policy that failed to produce results during Trump's first term, and which has been a constant feature of US-Iran relations for decades, has prompted skepticism. Analysts argue that economic pressure is a long-haul tactic, not a shortcut to peace, and that extra sanctions could destroy the last, best chances of a US withdrawal without total humiliation.

The fundamental problem with this approach is that Iran has been under some form of US sanctions for over 40 years.

🌏 The Iranian state has developed a "resistance economy" designed to survive precisely this kind of pressure.

🌏 Its leadership has endured decades of economic hardship and proven adept at finding workarounds, from underground financial networks to informal trade and strategic partnerships with countries like China and Russia.

For a country that has already absorbed the shock of military strikes, the prospect of more sanctions is unlikely to break its will. The Iranian leadership believes it can outlast the US, particularly given the upcoming US elections and Trump's political vulnerability to high gas prices.

The Trump administration is now in a race against time. Its military campaign has not achieved its objectives, and its pivot to increased economic pressure is a bet that Iran's economic pain will translate into political concessions. But Iran has shown that it can survive and adapt to such pressure, and the US administration's constantly shrinking goals suggest that it is the US, not Iran, that is running out of options.

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🇺🇸🛢📉 US burns through its oil shield as Iran war drags on

The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is heading toward its lowest level in four decades as America struggles with the energy fallout of the Iran war.

🔍 The SPR is projected to plunge to around 243 million barrels after the latest 172-million-barrel release, down from roughly 582 million in early 2022, according to the US Department of Energy. 

Reducing the stockpile to below 170 million barrels could undermine the integrity of the underground salt caverns and pumping infrastructure—an issue that Trump is attempting to address by authorizing a massive drawdown from the reserves. 

➡️ Meanwhile, the national average for regular gasoline has hit $4.07 per gallon in the US—a record high for mid-August—as Trump urges Americans to pay “a little bit more” and stop complaining, insisting that he allegedly “did the right thing.”

Trump says “I did the right thing.” However, America’s shrinking oil reserve and rising gas prices would beg to differ.

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🥴Demented Don is at it again: Iran must surrender — and if Oman gets in the way, apparently it gets bombed too.

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🔍📖The hidden global energy crisis in one chart

Between Trump cronies’ blatant Iran war pump-and-dump scheming, DARPA’s admission that it’s working on AI tools that can manipulate markets, and China’s use of reserves instead of crude purchases to satiate its massive demand, you’d think oil, gas and agri-input traders would be sounding the alarm about the ticking Hormuz+Ukraine war timebombs for the global economy.

Instead, although prices are climbing, they’re still far below the $150+ a barrel predicted by bankers in the spring – the tipping point after the planet may plunge into depression.

Hold your horses. It’s all coming, data analyzed by energy analytics firm Vortexa suggests.

Crunching the numbers on average Middle Eastern and Russia-sourced gasoil and diesel loadings, the London-based market intel firm spotted a sharp drop-off in exports from both regions since January, from upwards of 3.3M bpd then, to ~1.5M bpd now – a more than 50% drop.

👉 The implication? Severe structural tightness of supply of diesel and gasoil for industrial transport, farming and manufacturing (in case you were wondering about sky high US diesel prices, or the 40%+ hike in Europe – where wholesale diesel is now more expensive than jet fuel.

And that’s just the start, because futures price in only the initial shock, based on an incomplete picture, with the full “realignment” expected to smack headfirst into critically depleted global inventories (US distillate stockpiles are at their lowest level in decades), spiking fall and winter demand, Hormuz uncertainty and a Russian export ban until at least February 2027).

🔭 Translation? A systemic economic multiplier that could cripple supply chains, triggering food inflation, a drag on industrial logistics and trade, manufacturing and heavy industry blackouts, and entrenched inflation transitioning into stagflation.

NATO, incidentally, is directly responsible for both of the crises that have brought us to this point - unprovoked aggression against Iran, and the grinding, seemingly endless proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. As the saying goes, play stupid games, win stupid prices.

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🚨 Houthis score devastating hit on Saudi warships, sinking escort vessels — spokesperson

Houthi forces struck a Saudi naval vessel and accompanying military boats with multiple ballistic missiles, “resulting in the ship being completely engulfed in flames, while several of the boats were sunk and the remainder caught fire,” the movement’s spokesperson Yahya Saree announced.

Since July, the Houthis have ramped up their retaliatory campaign against Saudi Arabia, effectively blocking the kingdom’s shipping in the Red Sea, as well as carrying out several strikes on Saudi facilities.

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🗺 Kushner's Hamas talks: More empty Gaza diplomacy

President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has held a rare meeting with Hamas leaders in Egypt, attempting to salvage a stalled ceasefire plan for Gaza. The talks came just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the US-backed 15-point roadmap, which calls for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw from the flattened enclave.

Kushner's diplomatic efforts, however, have yielded little more than a string of failed projects and broken promises. He has spent months shuttling between Hamas and Israeli officials, but the situation has barely shifted from its stalemate.

👍 Grand ambitions and dismal outcomes

Kushner's diplomatic role is less about achieving peace than about shaping perception. His once relentlessly touted $70–112 billion Gaza "Riviera" redevelopment plan has been reduced to a pilot project involving portable cabins in Rafah. Yet even that modest scheme remains dead in the water with no cabins built, and the international security force intended to oversee it now a mere mirage.

In Albania, Kushner's pattern of self-serving grandiosity is even more visible. He and Ivanka Trump are promoting a $4 billion luxury resort on the protected coast of one of Europe's poorest nations, sparking outrage and mass protests among locals.

👹 No leverage over Israel

As a negotiator, Kushner appears to have no meaningful sway over Israel. Netanyahu has publicly rejected the US roadmap, and Israeli strikes on Gaza continue unabated.

The White House, nevertheless, has not withdrawn its support from the Israeli prime minister, viewing his actions as part of his election campaign strategy.

Kushner's meetings with Hamas leaders ultimately appear to be little more than a performance, designed to create the illusion of diplomatic activity while Israel retains full freedom of action.

❗️Meanwhile, the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate at an alarming pace:

🔴 Israel now occupies roughly 60 percent of the territory and has signaled its intention to expand control to 70 percent. Periodic ceasefire violations and airstrikes have killed and wounded dozens of Palestinians in recent days

🔴 Hospitals are running out of electricity and essential medications, including treatments for cancer patients. The enclave's 2 million residents face severe shortages of food, water, and medical supplies, with the UN warning of potential famine-like conditions in the north

🔴 Almost 90 percent of the population has been displaced, and reconstruction remains impossible as Israel continues to block the entry of construction materials and heavy equipment

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🇺🇸🤡 US justifies deadly Israeli strikes in Lebanon

🔴 The US has placed full responsibility on Hezbollah for Israel's prolonged occupation of parts of southern Lebanon and its recent strikes, marking a clear shift in Washington's public stance toward the escalating conflict, Haaretz reports.

🔴 Just days after the State Department criticized Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz's statements that Israel would stay in occupied southern Lebanon, US officials have now accepted Israel's explanations for the attacks. A State Department spokesperson stated that the group "must be disarmed and dismantled."

🔴 The shift comes as Israeli forces expanded their attacks across five southern Lebanese districts this weekend, killing at least 11 people, including women and children. Israel claimed the strikes were a response to a Hezbollah drone attack that wounded three Israeli soldiers, though the resistance group has not claimed responsibility for the attack.

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