🛢 🇸🇦 🇪🇬 Saudi Secrecy in Oil Exports via the Northern Red Sea and Egypt

🔹According to a Reuters report, Saudi crude oil exports through the Red Sea are increasingly declining as Yemeni attacks have intensified. Saudi Arabia is now shipping its cargoes via the Suez Canal or the Sumed pipeline at Egypt's Ain Sukhna port.

🔹 According to George Morris, an analyst at Vortexa, all loading operations from Yanbu port are currently conducted in secrecy, with tankers turning off their tracking systems to avoid Yemeni attacks. Nohwaya Hin Su, an analyst at Kepler, also claims that approximately 70% of loading operations along Saudi Arabia's western coast have been halted over the past few weeks, and all shipments from Yanbu port loaded after July 23 (August 1) have been carried on vessels lacking continuous AIS positioning system coverage.

✍️ Statistics from Vortexa tracking sites also show a production decline from 2.71 to 2.38 million barrels per day, while Kepler reports a drop from 4.04 to 1.78 million barrels per day. Of course, these figures are not real but rather reflect Saudi Arabia's strategy to counter Yemeni naval operations. The Saudis are attempting to manage the resulting crisis through secrecy and costly route changes. To bypass this crisis, Saudi Arabia is redirecting exports through alternative routes such as Egypt's Sumed pipeline and circumventing Africa, which has increased transportation costs by $5 to $9 per barrel and extended travel time to Asian destinations by about 30 days. The continuation of this trend is not in Saudi Arabia's favor and will, in the long run, reduce its ability to compete with other oil exporters and undermine its market stability.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/saudi-red-sea-oil-exports-go-dark-houthi-attack-threat-grows-2026-08-12/

📎 IWN

🇬🇧 🇺🇦 🇷🇺 UK-made drones strike targets inside Russia

British-made drones are being used to strike targets in Russia for the first time.

The drones, built by two separate British companies, have been used in mainland Russia in widespread and successful targeting of military and industrial targets, including refineries and warehouses of online retailer Wildberries.

The strikes, first reported by the Sunday Times, are said to have caused more than £35bn in economic damage. A well-placed military source confirmed to the BBC the UK drones had been used.

A spokesperson said: "We are committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin's illegal invasion.

"This includes over 150,000 drones this year, cutting-edge Stone Cloak devices that hinder Russian air defences and innovative low-cost cruise missiles."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5ywwv2pp44o

#Yemen 🇾🇪: “Ansar Allah” (#Houthis) fighters posted a new video while parading an armed Toyota pickup.

Fighters are notably using a Toyota-mounted #USA-made 🇺🇸 M167 “Vulcan” VADS with 20mm M168 six-barrel rotary cannon.

https://x.com/i/status/2089016861430026566

🇺🇸 🇹🇼 🇨🇳 Trump 2 is quietly dialing back Taiwan Strait transits: “…current rates project only 14 publicly reported transits for the entirety of Trump 2.0 — in what would amount to a 50 percent decline from Trump 1.0 and a 56 percent decline from the Biden administration.”

The severing of undersea cables and lately the unlawful stops and inspections of Taiwanese vessels are part of Beijing’s “salami-slicing” tactics aimed at draining the vigilance of Taiwan’s government. Still, Beijing has held off on launching an all-out invasion of the island for now. The prospect of US involvement — a perception partly sustained by routine naval presence — threatens to complicate China’s effort to achieve the “strategic decisive victory” that Chinese President Xi Jinping envisions.

Fewer public transits are taking place under Trump 2.0, at a time when Chinese maritime forces have grown more bellicose. While undeclared transits may be filling this gap, there is a real risk that American allies and partners—let alone Beijing—could misinterpret the Trump administration’s strategy as a retreat on American commitments. Perceptions of that kind, once formed, can become difficult to reverse.

https://breakingdefense.com/2026/08/america-is-sailing-through-the-taiwan-strait-less-does-it-matter/

📎 Derek J. Grossman

🌾 🌍 🚜 JPMorgan warns a massive global food supply crisis could begin next year as fertilizer shortages tighten agricultural supply.

JPMorgan is the latest institutional research desk to warn that the next global food crisis may already be taking shape, driven by what its analysts describe as the "Five Ws": War, Weather, Warehousing, Water, and Waste.

In a new report titled Food Security Is National Security: A Compounding Storm, a team led by London-based senior global economist Nora Szentivanyi warned that disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz and the emergence of a potentially historic El Niño could weaken crop yields, constrain agricultural production, and keep food inflation elevated through the first half of 2027.

"Successive shocks since COVID have compounded, eroding food production capacity and keeping food price pressures elevated into 2027," Szentivanyi said, warning that "this is not a short-lived shock; it has reduced the likelihood of near-term disinflation, and the food inflation cycle is likely to exert pressure through 1H27."

She expects global food inflation to accelerate from 2.8% in the first half of 2026 to 5% in the first half of next year.

The warning comes despite a modest improvement in hunger statistics. About 645 million people faced hunger in 2025, down roughly 43 million from 2022. Yet 2.1 billion people, or 25.8% of the global population, still experienced moderate or severe food insecurity.

Szentivanyi outlined the most immediate vulnerability: fertilizer. She noted, "Disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the coming super El Niño are adding to fertilizer and food price pressures."

She said that "crop and price effects are still building and agricultural impacts lag the oceanic peak by 6 to 12 months."

Szentivanyi warned that this year's energy shock could roughly double the inflationary impact of a super El Niño, lifting global food CPI by about 1.5 percentage points, compared with the historical .7-point increase. Food inflation is projected to reach a 5% annualized rate in the first half of 2027, adding .6 percentage points to headline inflation and slowing full-year disinflation by .3 points.

"Exposure is concentrated in South and Southeast Asia, including rice, sugar, and coffee; West Africa, including cocoa; and parts of East and Southern Africa," the analyst said, adding, "EM bears the brunt of El Niño. The largest food inflation responses are concentrated in EM Asia and Latin America, where weather-sensitive agriculture plays a larger role in economic activity, and food carries a higher weight in consumption baskets. India, Colombia, Indonesia, Brazil, Taiwan, and Korea emerge as among the most sensitive economies"”

Furthermore, China has been stockpiling food, fertilizer, energy, and industrial metals. While the West has strategic oil reserves (quickly draining to offset the loss of Gulf supplies), it lacks a meaningful fertilizer buffer. With the Hormuz chokepoint still disrupted, crop conditions deteriorating, and export controls spreading, Szentivanyi suggests that the next inflation shock may emerge not at the gas pump, as seen earlier this year, but potentially in the grocery aisle next year.

This comes as the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's global food price index climbed to a three-year high in July.

Bank of America analyst Robert Ohmes recently warned that another food price spike could arrive in supermarkets this fall. He said that grocery inflation "may be on the way," citing a blended index of wages, diesel, and commodity costs.

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/wont-be-short-lived-jpmorgan-warns-next-global-food-crisis-could-erupt-next-year

🇺🇸 The Trump government could have used Charlie Kirk’s assassination to annihilate antifa, the Far Left and kneecap the DSA.

Now, the same Leftist garbage that openly celebrated his horrific murder will be the sole beneficiaries since Kirk was eliminated & the Right devoured itself

📎 Nicholas J. Fuentes

⚡💰 Gold has overtaken U.S. Treasuries as the World's Top Reserve Asset, as countries and private investors resumed their accumulation of gold assets.

@medmannews

⚡️🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israel’s national security minister, Ben-Gvir says Israeli forces should “kill 30 or 40” people in Gaza every night.

“There are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people”, Ben-Gvir added.

@medmannews