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The empire is on fire. We show you who lit the match. Geopolitics without cheerleaders. Up vs. down, not left vs. right.
🚀September 13 Digest
1️⃣Strait of Hormuz: An Iranian commercial vessel was struck. Qeshm Governor Amir Teymouri said one person was killed and three were injured.
2️⃣Southern Saudi Arabia: Yemen’s Houthi movement said it fired drones and missiles at a Saudi military base. The claim followed Saudi strikes on Houthi-controlled areas.
3️⃣New Delhi, India: BRICS leaders continued the group’s summit after adopting the New Delhi Declaration on Saturday. The statement called for maximum restraint in the Middle East.
4️⃣Finland: EU leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, met to discuss Arctic policy, with military and economic competition in the region on the agenda.
5️⃣Djibouti: Finance Minister Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh said about 1,400 people arrived from Yemen within 24 hours. The arrivals were registered in Obock, according to the International Organization for Migration.
6️⃣Melbourne, Australia: Australian Federal Police charged a 30-year-old man from Roxburgh Park with accessing and distributing Islamic State propaganda. Police arrested him at Melbourne International Airport while he was preparing to fly to the Middle East.
7️⃣Hong Kong: Authorities kept clearing villages, farmland and wetlands for the Northern Metropolis, a US$28 billion technology project.
@Burning_Babylon
#BabylonBurning #Hormuz #RedSea #BRICS #Arctic
📉📈The Arithmetic Israel Won’t Admit
Israel’s coming election is being sold as the most consequential in the state’s history. The polls offer a colder verdict: neither camp has a clean path to 61 seats, so the contest is likely to end where recent Israeli elections keep ending — in bargaining, defections, and broken pledges.
Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar list absorbed Chili Tropper’s Beit Tzioni bloc before candidate registration closed. Tropper took sixth place; Shira Shapira took tenth; Elisaf Peretz joined lower on the slate. The merger strengthens Eisenkot’s ticket, but it does not solve the coalition problem.
The anti-Netanyahu camp wants the benefits of Arab parliamentary support without the political price of openly negotiating it. Eisenkot’s formula is to avoid talks with Mansour Abbas and Ahmad Tibi, then imply they bear responsibility if Netanyahu survives. That is not a coalition strategy. It is a note slid under a neighbor’s door because nobody wants to ask for the air conditioner directly.
Tropper helped block Benny Gantz from forming a minority government in 2020 under comparable conditions. Avigdor Lieberman and Naftali Bennett have also ruled out joining such a project. If that wall holds, the choice is not between a principled government and a Netanyahu government. It is between another unstable arrangement, built on violated core promises, and another election.
Israel has seen narrow mandates before: Yitzhak Rabin beat Yitzhak Shamir by one seat in 1992, while Benjamin Netanyahu defeated Shimon Peres by less than one percentage point in 1996. But a close vote is not a governing majority. The campaign industry sells destiny; the Knesset sells access.
@Burning_Babylon
#IsraelElections #Knesset #Netanyahu #Eisenkot #BabylonBurning
🪖⚔️IDF Runs Surprise West Bank Drill
The IDF activated all battalions in the Judea and Samaria Division for a surprise readiness exercise Friday. Security forces moved heavily across the West Bank through the afternoon, but the army said there was no active security incident.
The drill follows a series of exercises conducted in recent weeks ahead of the Jewish holiday period.
The army is testing mobilization, command response, and force movement at a time when routine deployment can quickly look like a new operation.
@Burning_Babylon
#WestBank #IDF #Tulkarm #BabylonBurning
🪖💥IDF Chief Claims Ali al-Taher Stronghold Destroyed
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said the military destroyed Hezbollah’s underground infrastructure on the Ali al-Taher Ridge overnight.
He called it Hezbollah’s
“central command, control, and combat infrastructure,”
“The Yellow Line remains under our full control and unchanged,”
🚀✈️Houthis Seize the Coast, Washington Stays Offstage
The Houthis took Mokha on Yemen’s Red Sea coast Thursday and pushed toward the Hanish islands, expanding their leverage over the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Yemeni military sources said the group also captured Zuqar Island after rocket fire and an amphibious assault; reports of landings on Perim Island remain unverified.
On Friday, the Houthis struck a Saudi oil pipeline near Medina, opening a second pressure point against Riyadh. The Red Sea shipping route and Saudi energy infrastructure.
The group’s moves are not random raids. They are a campaign to make the Saudi coast, the Bab al-Mandab, and the Kingdom’s oil network part of one battlefield.
Washington is increasing support for Saudi Arabia while trying to avoid a direct war with the Houthis. CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper traveled to Saudi Arabia Thursday for urgent coordination meetings, while President Trump declined Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s request for US strikes on Houthi forces.
The US wants the Saudis to hold the line without opening a second American war. The Houthis are betting that every new target makes that restraint more expensive.
@Burning_Babylon
#Yemen #Houthis #SaudiArabia #RedSea #BabylonBurning
🪖🙏Netanyahu Promises More Strikes
Speaking at Jerusalem’s Western Wall before Rosh Hashanah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran is again trying to obtain nuclear weapons. He said President Donald Trump’s statement that Tehran was rearming was correct.
Netanyahu said Israel had destroyed Iran’s immediate ability to build nuclear bombs during Operations Rising Lion and Lion’s Roar.
He pledged:
“As long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
“More to come,”
🚀☪️The Proxy Customer-Service Desk
The Houthis were not just claiming attacks on Saudi oil sites. Associated Press reports that Houthi envoys worked inside an Iraqi militia operations room and helped plan July’s two-day drone swarm against Saudi energy facilities.
Two Saudi officials and a senior Iraqi security official cited intelligence tying the Yemeni group to the operation.
U.S. and Saudi retaliation in Iraq reportedly killed at least 20 Iraqi fighters, six Iranian advisers and one senior Houthi official. The “axis of resistance” has the usual corporate structure, nobody owns the subsidiary until the airstrikes arrive.
Saudi Arabia then sent Tehran a warning through Pakistan. Restrain the Houthis, or risk a broader regional security crisis. Tehran’s answer was that Iran does not control the Houthis.
Two Iranian sources in the same Reuters report said Tehran had ordered the group to launch attacks on Saudi Arabia the previous week.
Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Asif said another attack on Saudi territory could activate the Mecca Joint Defense Agreement. The pact binds Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
@Burning_Babylon
#Iran #Houthis #SaudiArabia #Pakistan
⛏️🪖Farms Claim a Third of Area C
Israel’s Farm Association has circulated a map showing that roughly 130 agricultural and grazing farms now control more than 1.1 million dunams in Area C of the West Bank. About 40 of those farms were established during the past two years, according to the association’s own figures.
Area C covers about 3.5 million dunams. The farms therefore claim control over nearly one-third of it, compared with roughly 200,000 dunams occupied by established Israeli towns and settlements. The main expansion zones are the Jordan Valley, eastern Samaria, eastern Binyamin, and the southern Hebron Hills.
The association says it wants new farms to bring another million-plus dunams under de facto Israeli control.
@Burning_Babylon
#Israel #WestBank #Settlements #BabylonBurning
💥🔯Israel Celebrates, Then Threatens Tehran
Defense Minister Israel Katz marked the Jewish New Year by threatening Iran’s leadership. He said any attack on Israel, “for any reason and from any place,” would bring a powerful response that would hit Iran harder than ever before.
He added that, under instructions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and himself, the IDF stands ready to carry out the mission.
A New Year’s message from a government that has learned to treat celebration as an interval between warnings.
@Burning_Babylon
#Israel #Iran #Energy #BabylonBurning
🚀September 10 Digest
1️⃣Iranian missiles struck Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan overnight, damaging a US A-10 Thunderbolt and roughly eight F-15 fighter jets.
2️⃣Sirens sounded across Saudi Arabia amid the widening Iran-US confrontation, prompting the Civil Defence to issue and then lift danger warnings for Khamis Mushait and Abha.
3️⃣Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, visiting Slovenia for the opening of Israel's first embassy in Ljubljana, said Israel will not forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza.
4️⃣Ron Dermer denied that Netanyahu and the UAE president spoke before October 7, calling the Haaretz report false.
5️⃣A teacher was shot and hospitalized in moderate condition in a school parking lot near Beersheba at 6:48 a.m..
6️⃣An IDF soldier stole three M-16 rifles from Shayetet 13 Navy SEALs.
@Burning_Babylon
#Iran #Israel #Jordan #BabylonBurning
📈📉Five Polls, One Deadlock
Five polls released on September 9 show the same result in different numbers: Netanyahu’s coalition is still short of a governing majority, while the opposition cannot form one without Arab parties.
i24 / Direct Polls gives the coalition 52 seats, the opposition 52, and Arab parties four. Likud takes 27 seats; Yashar! takes 22.
Kan / Kantar also gives both blocs 52 seats, with four Arab-party seats. Yashar! leads with 24 seats, while Likud takes 21.
Channel 13 shows a 53–53 deadlock, with Arab parties on 14 seats. Yashar! receives 22 seats and Likud 19.
Maariv / Lazar gives Netanyahu’s bloc 57 seats, the opposition 52, and Arab parties 11. Likud reaches 25; Yashar! receives 21.
Channel 14 is the outlier. Its Next Data poll gives the Netanyahu bloc 64 seats against 44 for the opposition and 12 for Arab parties. Likud rises to 31 seats while Yashar! holds 22.
Four polls show Netanyahu below 61 seats, from 52 to 57. Channel 14 stands alone with a 64-seat right-wing bloc, driven by Likud at 31 seats and a much weaker Bennett list at seven.
The real divide is not between government and opposition. It is between polling houses. Channel 14 produces a Netanyahu majority large enough to govern. The other four produce a bargaining parliament where every bloc needs partners it has spent the campaign ruling out.
The polls are becoming campaign weapons. Each network manufactures a different election psychology: inevitability for Likud voters, possibility for the anti-Netanyahu camp, or paralysis for everyone else.
The fight is not yet over 61 seats. It is over who arrives at the ballot box convinced their side can win.
@Burning_Babylon
#Israel #Elections #Likud #BabylonBurning
💲🏦Likud Finds a Way to Bill Twice
Benjamin Netanyahu placed Talik Gvili ninth on the Likud slate as the formal representative of Gideon Sa’ar’s National Right party, rather than as a Likud candidate.
The designation preserves National Right as a separate parliamentary faction even though Sa’ar himself is running inside Likud.
That technical label is worth real money. National Right would receive about NIS 6.42 million in election funding if Gvili enters the Knesset, instead of the NIS 1.835 million attached to a regular Likud candidate.
It would also collect roughly NIS 100,000 a month as a separate faction, totaling about NIS 4.5 million across a 4½-year term.
Sa’ar reportedly declined to be registered under National Right because he wants to preserve the option of seeking the Likud leadership after Netanyahu.
Yaakov Bardugo also declined the party slot and took an ordinary Likud position instead.
Netanyahu gets Sa’ar inside Likud, Sa’ar keeps a separate political shell alive, and the public bankroll pays for the insurance policy.
@Burning_Babylon
#Israel #Likud #Elections #BabylonBurning
🪖🚀Katz Says Israel Will Stay on Syrian Hermon
Defense Minister Israel Katz visited IDF positions at Keter Hermon in Syrian territory with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Katz said Israeli forces would not leave the “security zone,” delivering a direct message to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Damascus palace he said lies 35 kilometers away.
“From here, we defend the communities of the Golan Heights and the Galilee,”
🙏🔯Shas Courts Tradition, Not Just the Haredi Base
Shas’s new campaign spot continues its effort to bind its Haredi core to Israel’s broader traditional public.
The party is trying to hold a shared religious identity together while newer Haredi lists target voters dissatisfied with the established sectoral leadership.
Shas cannot afford to become a party of one enclave. Its power comes from speaking in two registers at once: rabbinic authority for the Haredi base, family, faith, and social belonging for traditional Mizrahi voters.
@Burning_Babylon
#Israel #Shas #Elections #BabylonBurning
🪬🚀⚔️Netanyahu Claims “Absolute Control” From Syrian Hermon
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Keter Hermon position on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon with Defense Minister Israel Katz and Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai.
He claimed Israel now controls the area from the Hermon summit to the Yarmouk River and from there to the Mediterranean, calling it “absolute control unlike anything seen before”.
Netanyahu said Israel would not allow “any terror army” to establish itself on its border. He then called the defeat of Iran’s “terror regime” the main task still ahead, adding:
“We are very close to it. We know the entire axis will finally fall. We are committed to doing it, and we will do it”.
🚀September 11 Digest
1️⃣Hong Kong. The Court of First Instance sentenced Tiananmen vigil organizers Chow Hang-tung, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Albert Ho to between five years and seven years and three months for inciting subversion. Hong Kong Security Secretary Tang Ping-keung said the defunct Hong Kong Alliance used public events and social media to promote the overthrow of Communist Party rule and China’s constitutional order.
2️⃣Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. King Sultan Ibrahim postponed a ruling on former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s fresh clemency bid after a Pardons Board meeting. Malaysia’s legal-affairs division said the board “decreed that consideration of Najib’s request be delayed to the next meeting.”
3️⃣Shanghai, China. A Shanghai court sentenced the former president of state-owned Shanghai International Group to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption. Reuters reported the ruling after the court found him guilty in a case tied to the management of state financial assets.
4️⃣Dublin, Ireland. Central Bank of Ireland Governor Gabriel Makhlouf warned that further European Central Bank interest-rate increases could damage growth. He said rates must “remain restrictive” until inflation pressure is under control.
5️⃣Tokyo, Japan. Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said Tokyo would keep close contact with Washington over foreign-exchange markets. “We will continue to communicate closely with the United States,” she said, referring to the need for orderly currency moves.
6️⃣Washington, D.C. Congressional aides said the US House would begin considering a sweeping Russia sanctions bill next week. The measure carries the backing of the late Senator Lindsey Graham and would expand pressure on Moscow’s economic links.
7️⃣Berlin, Germany. Germany’s Federal Statistical Office reported that corporate insolvencies reached their highest first-half level in 13 years. Reuters said the increase persisted despite signs of an economic recovery.
@Burning_Babylon
#BabylonBurning #WorldNews #Geopolitics
Washington’s Iran Squeeze Hits Central Asia
The National Interest argues that Washington’s latest Iran sanctions could cut across its own Central Asia strategy.
Secondary-sanctions risk threatens the banking, insurance, rail, port, and fuel links Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan use to reach the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean through Iran.
Kazakhstan’s trade with Iran rose 26.4% in 2025 to about $430 million, while rail freight rose 69%.
In June, Astana signed a 27-year deal for a logistics terminal at Bandar Abbas. Uzbekistan routed roughly 9% of imports and 10% of non-gold exports through Iran in 2025, while Tajikistan’s Iran freight rose 17.5% in the first half of 2026.
The trap is simple. Washington says Central Asia must escape dependence on Russia and China, but Iran is one of the few southern routes that lets the region do so.
If US sanctions make ordinary Iranian transit commercially radioactive, regional governments will not become more Western. They will return to the routes and financial systems Moscow and Beijing already control.
@Burning_Babylon
#CentralAsia #Iran #Sanctions #China #Russia #BabylonBurning
🚀💀Israel Targets Hamas Command Layer in Khan Younis
An Israeli strike near Al-Quba Mosque in Khan Younis’s Hamad neighborhood killed Mohammed al-Ayazouri, known as Abu al-Haytham.
The IDF and Shin Bet identified him as the Hamas military wing’s Khan Younis Brigade commander, citing earlier roles as deputy brigade commander, combat-support battalion commander, and intelligence chief.
Gaza sources described al-Ayazouri as a Khan Younis battalion commander. The distinction matters, but both accounts place him within Hamas’s senior military command structure.
The strike also killed engineering-company commander Hudhayfa Amr and another Hamas operative, Mohammed Bahjat Rashi.
Israeli forces separately killed Moamen Jabr al-Sayed Abu Labda, described by the IDF and Shin Bet as head of a Rafah Brigade sniper cell that trained shooters and repeatedly violated the ceasefire.
Another strike in Khan Younis killed Jihad Ismail, whom Gaza sources said crossed into Israeli territory on October 7. Twelve people were reported wounded in that attack. Nine people were killed across Gaza on Thursday.
At al-Ayazouri’s funeral, attendees chanted calls for revenge in the name of the Qassam Brigades, warned Jews to “remember Khaybar,” and declared that October 7 would return. Other footage from the procession described October 7 as a holiday.
@Burning_Babylon
#Gaza #Hamas #Israel #KhanYounis #BabylonBurning
🚀September 11 Digest
1️⃣Two Ships Hit Near Oman
Four unidentified projectiles struck two vessels near Khasab, Oman, on Thursday. The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency said one vessel caught fire and the condition of the second remained unclear.
2️⃣Saudi Arabia Lifts Southwest Alert
Saudi Civil Defense sounded sirens and issued a temporary threat warning for Abha and Khamis Mushait on Thursday, then lifted it minutes later. The alert came amid escalating fighting between Houthi forces and Yemen’s government troops.
3️⃣Israel and Lebanon Plan Rome Talks
Israel and Lebanon will hold a new round of talks in Rome next week on verifying Hezbollah’s absence from designated pilot areas, according to Israeli public broadcaster KAN. Lebanon’s army said Israel had committed 7,700 violations since the June framework agreement.
4️⃣Israeli Forces Detain 33 Palestinians
Israeli forces detained 33 Palestinians in West Bank raids on Thursday, including two journalists and two minors, the Palestinian Prisoners Media Office said. The raids covered dozens of homes in Nablus, Bethlehem, and other governorates.
5️⃣EU Sends Jordan €150 Million
The European Commission disbursed €150 million in macro-financial assistance to Jordan on Thursday. The transfer is part of the EU’s economic-support package for Amman.
6️⃣UN Security Council Condemns Houthi Attacks
The UN Security Council backed Saudi Arabia and condemned Houthi attacks, warning that the Yemen escalation could widen into a broader regional war.
@Burning_Babylon
#Oman #SaudiArabia #Lebanon #Jordan #Yemen #BabylonBurning
🚀September 10 Digest
1️⃣Houthis Enter Mokha
Houthi fighters entered Mokha, Yemen’s strategic Red Sea port city, according to two local residents. Government-aligned forces said the Houthis had already seized al-Shaqira, a supply route linking Taiz to the coast.
2️⃣Taiz Front Becomes a Bab al-Mandab Fight
Houthi forces launched a ground assault, rockets, and drones near Yemen’s western coast as they pushed toward areas bordering the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Military and medical sources reported 81 dead, including 24 government fighters, 15 fighters in the Taiz sector, and 42 Houthis.
3️⃣Family Killed in Beit Lahiya
An Israeli strike killed a husband, wife, and their daughters, ages 8 and 12, in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Shifa Hospital received the bodies. The Israeli military gave no immediate comment on the strike.
4️⃣Israel Bars Britain From Gaza Mission
Israel barred the United Kingdom from a US-led mission for Gaza and banned entry for several British officials, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. The move followed London’s measures against settlement trade.
5️⃣Iran Claims Attack on Ten Ships Near Hormuz
Iran said it attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after US forces sank five Iranian oil tankers. At least one seafarer aboard a tanker was reported killed and another injured.
@Burning_Babylon
#Yemen #Houthis #Gaza #Israel #Iran #BabylonBurning
☠️Yemen’s Coastal Kill Box
Yemen’s internationally recognized armed forces declared the western coastal corridor between Taiz and Mokha a live-fire zone for operations against Houthi forces.
The military spokesperson’s notice calls the designated area a “kill box” and says all weapons and firepower will be used against any Houthi military movement inside it.
Civilians were told to avoid the Taiz–Mokha road until further notice and stay clear of Houthi gatherings and positions.
@Burning_Babylon
#Yemen #Houthis #Taiz #BabylonBurning
🔯🙏Shas Rabbi Warns Against Eisenkot
Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef warned that a victory for “the left and Eisenkot” would be a disaster.
He said that when Gadi Eisenkot served as IDF chief of staff, Yosef approached him over the deployment of male and female soldiers in the same tank and
“he did not even answer me.”
“Can he be trusted?”
💲🪖Trump Sells a War Dividend
At a Republican midterm convention in Dallas, Donald Trump promised every adult US citizen a $5,000 “Trump dividend” if Republicans retain both chambers of Congress.
He tied the payout to the country’s
“tremendous strength and success economically”
“I should get something out of it.”
💥🔯Israel Celebrates, Then Threatens Tehran
Defense Minister Israel Katz marked the Jewish New Year by threatening Iran’s leadership. He said any attack on Israel, “for any reason and from any place,” would bring a powerful response that would hit Iran harder than ever before.
He added that, under instructions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and himself, the IDF stands ready to carry out the mission.
A New Year’s message from a government that has learned to treat celebration as an interval between warnings.
@Burning_Babylon
#Israel #Iran #Energy #BabylonBurning
🚀September 9 World Brief
1️⃣Moscow, Russia
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow hopes U.S.-mediated talks with Ukraine will resume soon. No direct Russia-Ukraine talks have taken place since February, but Russia remains in contact with U.S. counterparts after Donald Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin.
2️⃣Washington, United States
Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin “wants to make a deal” to end the war in Ukraine after what Trump described as a “great” call earlier this week. He added that a deal would be possible if Volodymyr Zelenskyy also wants one.
3️⃣Buenos Aires, Argentina
Argentina’s corn exports are expected to reach a record 10 million metric tons in August and September as buyers replace disrupted Ukrainian grain and European crops damaged by extreme heat. North African imports from Argentina rose 45% in the first seven months of 2026 to 6.5 million tons.
4️⃣Dallas, United States
Republicans gathered for an unusual pre-midterm national convention as Donald Trump tries to energize his party before the November 3 vote. The event opened a quiet succession fight over tariffs, the Iran war, and who will inherit Trump’s coalition if the election goes badly.
5️⃣Madrid, Spain
Spanish government documents showed intelligence services warned Madrid and Moroccan authorities one day before more than 70,000 migrants crossed into Ceuta, Spain’s North African enclave.
6️⃣Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia
Wildfires burning through parched forests and peatlands in Indonesia drove the country’s carbon-dioxide emissions to the highest levels in the world, according to Reuters-cited data.
7️⃣British Consulate in East Jerusalem
Israel ordered the British Consulate in occupied East Jerusalem closed and withdrew its diplomats' accreditation, a response to UK trade measures targeting the settlements.
@Burning_Babylon
#Ukraine #Argentina #USPolitics #Spain #Indonesia #BabylonBurning
⚔️👣Netanyahu’s Hermon Visit an Illegal Incursion
Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Israeli positions at Mount Hermon inside Syrian territory.
Damascus called it an “illegal entry,” a provocation, and a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty, territorial integrity, and international law.
The ministry said Israel’s continuing incursions and attacks inside Syria constitute a dangerous escalation that threatens regional security and stability.
It held Israel fully responsible for the consequences and urged the UN, international bodies, and influential states to halt the incursions and restore the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.
Damascus has no force capable of removing Israel from the mountain, so it is fighting for the legal map. Netanyahu calls it a security zone; Syria calls it an occupation.
Each phrase is a claim to the ground, but only one side has soldiers standing on it.
@Burning_Babylon
#Syria #Israel #MountHermon #BabylonBurning
⚓️💥Turkey Moves Kamikaze Boats Toward the Fleet
Turkish defense contractor STM says it has signed a contract with Turkey’s Defense Industry Agency to begin production of the YAKUT kamikaze unmanned surface vessel for operational service.
STM has previously displayed the platform as a swarm-capable autonomous system, but the contract moves it from demonstration to procurement.
The 5.8-meter YAKUT is built to carry a warhead into maritime targets at speeds above 50 knots and a stated range of roughly 370 kilometers. STM says several vessels can operate as an AI-enabled swarm, assigning tasks among themselves without continuous human direction.
Ankara is buying a cheap naval attrition weapon with a long reach. A boat that costs less than a frigate can still force frigates, tankers, ports, and offshore infrastructure to spend heavily on detection and defense.
The Black Sea wrote the manual.
@Burning_Babylon
#Turkey #NavalWarfare #Drones #BabylonBurning
🙏⚔️Blinken Underwrites the Haaretz Account
Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken replied to Ryan Grim’s post about Shlomi Eldar’s reporting with a blunt endorsement: “To the point, it’s all true. Exactly so”.
The account says Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told Blinken on October 7 that Hamas was ready to release civilian hostages and that Doha could mediate a rapid deal.
Blinken reportedly said he would speak directly with Netanyahu after arriving in Israel three days later, arguing that “the situation is complex,” Israel was under attack, and “there’s no one to talk to”.
Blinken’s confirmation removes the easy escape hatch that this was merely a hostile Israeli press story.
@Burning_Babylon
#Israel #Gaza #Hostages #US #BabylonBurning
🚀⚓️🛢Rubio Makes Iranian Tankers the Price of Defiance
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Iran continues trying to strike U.S. Navy ships and warned that
“for every time they do that or try to do that, they’re going to lose tankers.”
“I think you’ll see that again today”.
🚀September 9 World Brief
1️⃣Al-Azraq, Jordan
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it fired ballistic missiles at the U.S.-used Al-Azraq air base and attacked 10 vessels near the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran said the strikes answered U.S. attacks on five Iranian oil tankers.
2️⃣Strait of Hormuz
Only six commodity vessels passed through Hormuz on Tuesday, down from nine the previous day and well below the 10-day average of roughly 12 crossings, according to preliminary shipping data.
3️⃣Asian Markets
Brent crude rose $1.57 to $99.49 a barrel, its highest since late June, while WTI gained $1.60 to $94.63 after Iranian strikes and U.S. attacks on Iranian tankers.
4️⃣Beijing, China
China marked 50 years since Mao Zedong’s death. Reuters noted that Mao’s legacy still hangs over the Communist Party as Beijing manages economic weakness, social control, and intensifying rivalry with Washington.
5️⃣Canberra, Australia
Australia said its alliance with Washington faces no threat after reports that the Trump administration criticized Canberra’s draft law allowing users to opt out of social-media recommendation algorithms.
6️⃣Taos, New Mexico, United States
Residents of New Mexico criticized Donald Trump’s proposal to rename their state “New America,” calling it an attempt to erase the state’s history and cultural identity.
@Burning_Babylon
#Iran #Jordan #Hormuz #Oil #BabylonBurningael #BabylonBurning