by Tyler Durden

Friday's diesel deal between Trump and Putin wasn't only about diesel. It was also about Kyiv.

President Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Thursday that he didn’t intend to launch strikes against Iran prior to the US midterm elections that will be held on November 3, comments that came after multiple media reports said he was considering bombing the country before the vote.

Trump claimed in the post that the US was having “productive discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran” and said that the US “will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections.”

New data suggests that the volume of ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz has again fallen off, despite the consistent assertions from U.S. Central Command that flows are increasing and “building momentum for freedom of navigation.” The latest reversal followed an increased pace of attacks on tankers, and after reports had indicated oil flows were back to pre-war levels.

Just when it seemed like we had hit a period of relative calm, global events are starting to accelerate again. Within the past 24 hours, there have been a couple of absolutely enormous developments. First of all, Tropical Storm Isaias has become Hurricane Isaias and we are being told that it will make landfall along the Gulf Coast. That is potentially a major problem because the Gulf Coast accounts for over 50 percent of the crude oil refining capacity in the United States.

Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November/December 2026, pp. xx-xx 

Special Report By Elizabeth Murray

A NEW FREEDOM FLOTILLA, led by the aptly named Tenacity, set sail from Bristol, UK in September and headed for Gaza in yet another attempt to break Israel’s siege and blockade of Gaza.

by Tyler Durden

Update(1604ET): There are reports that possibly several parked aircraft were damaged or destroyed after the earlier Thursday Houthi ballistic missile attack on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh. And now international reports are saying a slew of airliners are suspending flights to the city, some tentatively for up to a week:

Western countries have exhausted the oil inventories available to offset supply disruptions from the US-Israeli war with Iran, leaving the market increasingly exposed to further shocks, Vitol CEO Russell Hardy has said. The energy crunch has now spread from crude and refined fuels to global shipping.

In Tehran, discussions about Iran’s potential withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) are growing increasingly urgent. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baghaei has recently acknowledged that the issue is being seriously considered by Iranian officials. His statements lend significant political weight to the discourse around Iran’s potential withdrawal from the NPT: One can no longer downplay it as something proposed by hardliners or fringe groups.

US military aid and arms transfer continue unchanged, as US public sentiment shifts.

aljazeera.com

Washington, DC – Three years into Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, little has changed in terms of official US support.

by Dave De Camp, antiwar.com

Syria is considering sending troops, including foreign jihadists, to help Saudi Arabia fight against Ansar Allah in Yemen, according to media reports, as Riyadh continues to seek international support for the war, which it reignited in July by bombing the Sanaa International Airport.