Greetings! Happy Patriot Day* to those celebrating.
Let’s get into today’s top stories.
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🌎 GLOBAL NEWS
🇸🇦 Saudi pipeline shuts as Houthis seize Red Sea island. Saudi Arabia shut its East-West oil pipeline after a drone attack as Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized Mayun Island at the Red Sea’s southern entrance. The Energy Ministry called the shutdown precautionary. Saudi officials said several drones came from Iraq. Iraq condemned the attack and opened an investigation. The Houthis also captured Mokha on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Their gains are the group’s largest territorial advance in years. Mayun, also called Perim, sits inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The channel is only 28 kilometers wide at its narrowest point. Saudi Arabia has depended more heavily on Red Sea exports since Iranian attacks restricted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. By early June, the East-West pipeline was supporting more than 5M barrels of daily exports from its Red Sea terminus. Houthi forces have attacked Saudi shipping and oil infrastructure during the Iran war. They say their Red Sea blockade targets Saudi-linked vessels. Saudi Arabia struck Mokha’s airport after the Houthi takeover, with no reported casualties. Iran called for renewed negotiations while Saudi officials said the kingdom retains its right to self-defense. The fighting threatens a fragile truce that had largely quieted Yemen’s civil war since 2022.
🇾🇪 Houthi advance squeezes a vital Red Sea shipping route. The Houthi capture of Mokha and Mayun Island puts the rebels beside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of global trade’s most important chokepoints. The passage connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and routes linking Asia and Europe. It had become a critical workaround after Iran restricted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Saudi crude could cross the kingdom by pipeline to Yanbu, then sail south through Bab el-Mandeb toward Asian buyers. Houthi attacks now threaten that route too. Shipping through the strait remains about 60% below levels before attacks began in late 2023. The Houthis say non-Saudi shipping remains safe, but carriers have already treated their threats cautiously. Saudi tankers are increasingly sailing north from Yanbu instead. Some pass through the Suez Canal toward the Mediterranean. Larger vessels can unload at Egypt’s Ain Sokhna and send crude by pipeline to Sidi Kerir. Roughly 70% of Yanbu crude exports are now heading north by tanker or pipeline. That route is longer for Asian customers and adds cost and complexity. The Houthis have also threatened northern Red Sea shipping. Their advance therefore pressures both the southern exit and Saudi Arabia’s alternative export network. The result is another constraint on oil logistics during a war already pushing crude above $100 per barrel.
🇺🇸 LOCAL NEWS
🗽 America marks 25 years since the September 11th attacks and the fallout. Americans commemorated a quarter-century since hijackers killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001. Four commercial jets were hijacked, reshaping American security and foreign policy. Ceremonies centered the victims, first responders and families carrying losses across generations. The attacks also began a military response whose human toll extended far beyond American borders. The Global War on Terror opened with the 2001 invasion and two-decade occupation of Afghanistan, then expanded through the 2003 Iraq invasion and operations across Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and elsewhere. Brown University’s Costs of War project estimates over 432K civilians were killed directly in post-9/11 war zones; with combatants and other war deaths, direct deaths exceed 940K. Another estimated 3.6M to 3.8M people died indirectly from destroyed health systems, infrastructure, malnutrition and disease. That places the death toll around 4.5M to 4.7M, though precise totals remain unknowable. More than 38M people were displaced across post-9/11 war zones. Afghanistan remained under American military occupation until 2021. American counterterror operations spread across dozens of countries as the war framework outlived its opening occupations. At home, September 11th produced new aviation security, surveillance authorities and the Department of Homeland Security. Muslim Americans also endured heightened suspicion, profiling and discrimination afterward. Twenty-five years later, remembrance includes both the nearly 3,000 people murdered that morning and the millions killed, displaced or transformed by wars launched in its aftermath.
📑 CIA releases pre-9/11 intelligence briefs on bin Laden. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released several dozen declassified Presidential Daily Briefs (PDBs) covering Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida before the September 11th attacks. CIA Director John Ratcliffe called it the agency’s largest release of declassified PDBs. The documents span February 1998 through September 12th, 2001. They show intelligence officials tracking bin Laden’s movements, finances, support network and interest in attacks against American targets. A July 1998 brief judged an attack inside America plausible. A briefing two months later raised the possibility of an aircraft packed with explosives striking an American city. December 1998 reporting discussed potential hijackings and alleged trial runs at a New York airport. Other documents tracked bin Laden’s interest in chemical and biological weapons. Briefs in early 2001 described crude experimentation with biological agents. A report one month before the attacks said bin Laden remained committed to attacking inside America. The material also shows how analysts understood his relationship with the Taliban government. An April 1998 brief noted Taliban reluctance to surrender him. A September 12th, 2001 report said the attacks had been planned for years. That same report indicated the Capitol had also been targeted. The release provides a broader record of what intelligence officials knew, suspected, and warned about before the attacks.
🗂️ MISC
🧾 Inflation stays at 3.4% as fuel costs keep climbing. American consumer prices rose 3.4% in August from a year earlier, matching July’s annual rate. Prices climbed 0.4% from July alone. That monthly increase quadrupled July’s 0.1% rise. Gasoline jumped 3.9% in August and is more than 27% higher than a year ago. The nationwide average reached about $4.30 per gallon. Diesel has climbed above $6 per gallon, raising freight costs across the economy. Airline fares rose 2.7% in August and more than 23% year over year. Hotel prices increased 2.4% for the month. Car repair costs rose 1.1% and are 5.2% higher than a year ago. Core inflation excluding food and energy eased to 2.4% annually from 2.5%. Core prices nevertheless rose 0.3% month over month, the largest increase since April. The Federal Reserve meets September 15th and 16th. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has said continuing disinflation would be needed to justify holding rates steady. Futures markets now imply more than an 80% chance of a rate increase on September 16th. The Iran war, tariffs and heavy AI data-center investment are complicating hopes that inflation will continue fading.
📈 Stocks rebound as oil retreats from nearly $110. American stocks rallied as oil prices pulled back and August inflation landed near expectations. The Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) rose 0.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 509 points, or 1%. The Nasdaq composite also climbed 1%. The S&P 500 ended a four-session losing streak, its longest since June. Brent crude fell 2.8% to $104.61 per barrel. It had approached $110 overnight after reaching its highest levels since May. The inflation report showed consumer prices 3.4% higher than a year earlier. Rate-hike expectations still strengthened. The two-year Treasury yield rose to 4.62% from 4.56%. The 10-year Treasury yield edged to 4.97% from 4.95%. The 30-year yield slipped to 5.36% from 5.37%. Consumer inflation expectations for the next year rose to 4.6% from 4% in a University of Michigan survey. Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has avoided committing publicly to the central bank’s next move. Markets ended the session balancing relief from cheaper oil against the prospect of tighter monetary policy.
👀 ICMYI
1. America makes progress reopening Hormuz as the Iran war continues.
2. President Trump marks 25 years since September 11th at the Pentagon.
3. Republicans center midterm strategy on President Trump after Dallas.
4. Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer asks judge to prevent a second murder trial.
5. Convicted sex offender gives opening prayer at a GOP Senate rally.
6. Nicolas Cage’s Malibu mansion driveway collapses into a sinkhole.
7. Federal court rejects order keeping a Michigan coal plant operating.
8. Nashville officials unite behind renaming airport for Dolly Parton.
9. Record US diesel prices squeeze farmers during harvest season.
10. Diesel tops $6 per gallon, raising costs for moving everyday goods.
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That’s all for today! Hope you liked this issue.
Much obliged and many thanks for reading.
See you tomorrow, same newsletter. Onward!
*Today’s issue is dedicated to the memory of the 2,977 lives lost on 9/11, and to the memory of my late maternal uncle, Deputy Chief Inspector (DCI) Syed Rahman, a 22-year FDNY veteran, who served as a first responder, both on 9/11 and the start of COVID-19, who we lost to the pandemic’s first wave in March 2020. 🕊️🗽❤️🩹
