Heather Cox Richardson writes about an important and devastating turn in Trump’s disastrous war on Iran. The Houthis have captured a key port that enables them to target the transit of oil from the Red Sea. This could drive the cost of oil even higher than it is today, which inflates the cost of most other products.
Think about it: Trump is unqualified to lead the nation into war. He never served, and he has no relevant knowledge or experience. He doesn’t trust American intelligence services, and he has fired top advisors. Pete Hegseth is totally unqualified for his position. He served, but his head is full of nonsense about “manliness” and “the warrior ethic.” He has fired the military’s top generals and admirals.
These two incompetents have dragged us into a war without end.
Heather Cox Richardson describes an ominous development:
We woke up today to news that Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants have taken control of the city and seaport of Mocha and much of the shoreline of the Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb strait, another chokepoint for world trade including trade in oil. With the Strait of Hormuz largely closed, Saudi Arabia has relied for seagoing transport on the Red Sea route that empties into the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean.
As Diana Roy of the Council on Foreign Relations wrote in July, the Red Sea is one of the most important routes for global shipping. It carries twelve to fifteen percent of the global maritime trade every year, worth about $1 trillion. The waterway extends about 1,400 miles from the Suez Canal—which connects it to the Mediterranean Sea—at the northern end to the Bab El-Mandeb strait in the south.
The Iran-backed Houthis are in a struggle against the Saudi Arabia–backed Yemeni government. A fragile truce has been in place since 2022, but clashes between the two forces have escalated for weeks, and on Tuesday, September 8, Houthi attacks on Saudi targets started fires at oil facilities and wounded more than 70 people.
The Yemeni government told Reuters that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have guided the Houthi advance, and according to Zachary Cohen, Katie Bo Lillis, and Kylie Atwood of CNN, U.S. officials think that hundreds of IRGC officers are currently in Yemen working with the Houthis to shut down the Bab el-Mandeb. The journalists note that CNN has previously reported that in case U.S. negotiations were unsuccessful, Iran had planned an economic “nuclear option”: closing the Bab el-Mandeb.
Cohen, Lillis, and Atwood reported this afternoon that more than 100 U.S. military advisors are in Saudi Arabia as part of a new joint forces command, providing the Saudis with intelligence and helping them find Houthi targets.
The sources who told the journalists about the joint effort emphasized that the U.S. routinely shares intelligence with the Saudis and that it is neither participating directly in the strikes nor providing operational support. Still, U.S. airstrikes on the Houthis in 2025 killed 153 civilians and wounded 243 others in Yemen in 2025.
The price of oil jumped to $109 a barrel, and U.S. gasoline rose to an average of about $4.28 a gallon. GasBuddy said the national average price of diesel had hit $6.00 for the first time in history. Just a year ago, the national average was about $3.70.
GasBuddy issued a statement, saying: “While gasoline gets the headlines, diesel is the fuel that moves the economy, powering the freight trucks, trains, agricultural equipment, and construction machinery behind nearly everything Americans buy. That means its impact reaches far beyond the transportation sector. As diesel climbs, higher supply chain costs work their way into the price of groceries, household goods, deliveries, and countless other products families rely on every day, even for households that never fuel a diesel vehicle.”
GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, said the new record “will be a particularly painful one for the economy” and is “likely to reignite inflation up and down the supply chain.” He continued: “I suggest Americans anticipate a costlier holiday season, as it appears diesel prices could continue climbing as geopolitical tensions continue to remain a main factor.”
While all this was going on, tonight President Trump attended the second day of his Dallas rally to fire up his base before the midterm elections. There, a video from the Republican National Committee intoned: “And on June 14th, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker,’ so God gave us Trump.”
—
Notes:
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/10/politics/us-military-support-saudi-arabia-houthi-iran-yemen
https://www.npr.org/2026/09/08/g-s1-142296/houthi-attacks-saudi-arabia
https://www.cfr.org/articles/another-hormuz-the-red-seas-threat-to-the-global-economy
Bluesky:
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Just in case you were doubting that this administration was a Russian asset…
LikeLike
What does any of this have to do with Russia? Are you aware that Trump is funding, arming and providing intelligence to Ukraine? I’ve always respected you, Roy, but this fixation of liberals on Russia is mindboggling. I think you would benefit from examining the propaganda of your formative years.
LikeLike
Wow, Dienne, your loyalty to Putin never ends.
Putin is supplying Iran with weapons to kill Americans.
Putin is still blowing up homes and apartment buildings and other non- military targets.
Europe is rearming because they know Putin.
Finland and Sweden joined NATO because they fear Russian aggression.
You know more than the Finns and the Swedes.
The war in Ukraine ends when Putin decides to end it
LikeLike
Okay, so you admit that the U.S. and Russia are on opposite sides when it comes to Iran, as they are when it comes to Ukraine. So why on earth would you say that Trump is Putin’s pawn? How does that make sense to you, regardless of your opinion of either Trump or Putin?
<!– /wp:
LikeLike
Trump doesn’t do anything that might offend Putin.
He shocked our Europeannfriends when he invited the Russian Minister of Finance to participate in the Group of 20 meeting about the global economy. Russia had been banned since its invasion of Ukraine.
He sent Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to mediate peace between Russia and Ukraine. Of course they failed but before leaving Russia, they fawned over Putin. After they met Zelensky, they had the bright idea that Ukraine should give Russia land it had not conquered. Zelensky said no. They were negotiating on behalf of what Putin wanted.
When they came home, Trump insisted that Ukraine should stop bombing Russian oil facilities. He made no demands on Putin. He did not urge Putin to stop bombing homes, schools, civilian targets, and the energy supply that enables Ukrainians to survive the hard winter.
Russia is supporting Iran. Gives Iran the intelligence to bomb our bases in the Middle East. Trump continues to bow and scrape to Putin. Trump is and always has been on Putin’s side in the Ukraine war.
Putin has something on Trump. No idea what it is.
LikeLike
Your first sentence is false right out of the gate. Trump unilaterally pulled out of nuclear treaties with Russia. Trump was also the first ro arm Ukraine, something Obama had refused to do. He has leveled numerois sanctions on Russia, bombed their allies Syria and Iran and couped their ally Venezuela. He expelled 60 Russian diplomats. I can’t have a serious discussion with you if you think those things didn’t upset Putin.
LikeLike
Biden armed Ukraine long before Trump. Biden made his support for Ukraine unambiguous. Trump has repeatedly urged Ukraine to give Putin what he wants: uncontested control of Ukrainian lands that he stole, as well as land he has not yet conquered.
Europe and NATO are rapidly rearming because Russia has repeatedly violated the airspace of NATO countries. Please, tell us what Caitlin Johnston thinks.
LikeLike
No, Diane, Trump armed Ukraine in his first term, before Biden was president. Facts matter. Anyway, like I said, done here. This is ridiculous.
LikeLike
Trump’s first term predated Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump’s first term was 2017-2021. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began February 24, 2022. Biden was President, not Trump.
Russia’s initial invasion occurred in 2014, when it seized and annexed Crimea and began infiltration of the Donbas. Putin thinks that all of Ukraine belongs to Russia and it should not exist, except as a Russian colony.
The Ukrainians don’t agree. If they did, they would have not fought so long and so courageously to escape Russian control.
You probably forgot the infamous phone call in which Trump threatened to stop arming Ukraine unless Zelensky provided dirt on Biden. Trump has never embraced Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion.
Russiagate was not fake. It was documented by the bipartisan report of the
Select Committee on Intelligence, United States Senate on Russian Active Measures Campaigns and Interference in the 2016 U.S. Election
116th Congress
Date: August 18, 2020
S. Rpt. 116-290
You are an unusually intelligent woman who has an inexplicable soft spot for one of the world’s most brutal dictators.
There is plenty to criticize about the U.S., but in this country, critics of Trump don’t get assassinated, don’t get thrown out of windows from high floors, don’t get poisoned. People who plan to run against him are not jailed and murdered.
LikeLike
OMG, I know I said I was done, but this is just ridiculous. Yes, I know when Russia invaded Ukraine and I know when Trump’s and Biden’s terms were. The fact remains that Trump armed Ukraine during his first term after Obama had refused to do so. This. Is. A. Fact. Here’s the Atlantic Council (hardly a bastion of loony leftism) confirming that FACT: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/lethal-weapons-to-ukraine-a-primer/
LikeLike
For what it’s worth, the weapons shipped to Ukraine were restricted, not to be used on front lines:
The Wall Street Journal:
“As one of the most advanced pieces of weaponry to be introduced into Ukraine, the shipment and usage of US-supplied Javelins will be an important space to watch. However, the United States has reportedly restricted the new military equipment to training centers far from the frontlines due to theft and end-use concerns. At least for now, the Javelins serve as a tool of diplomatic leverage in negotiations with Russia on a possible peacekeeping mission. It will thus be equally important to track how these Western arms influence the battle in eastern Ukraine.”
LikeLike
Thank you for admitting I’m right that Trump did, in fact, arm Ukraine. Now maybe admit I’m right about other things as well.
Have a great day, Diane.
LikeLike
Right. He sent weapons to Ukraine because Congress wanted him too.
He sent them BEFORE Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Anyone who thinks Trump favored Ukraine over Russia has not been paying attention.
Zelensky was a hero to Biden, Congress, and the American people. Trump has treated him contemptuously.
LikeLike
I never said Trump favored Ukraine over Russia. I said he has armed, funded and provided intelligence to Ukraine, all of which is true and all of which offended Putin and all of which have made us more unsafe (as it did when Biden did it).
Let it go, Diane. Do you have any idea how ridiculous you seem trying to pretzel arming an enemy and bombing an ally into “being controlled by Putin”? What would Trump have to do to convince you he’s not Putin’s puppet? Nuke Russia? Don’t you see how this paves the way toward hot war with Russia?
LikeLike
Trump is Putin’s puppet.
Why is he breaking up NATO?
Why is he hostile to Canada?
Why does he express admiration for the dictator of North Korea (who has sent troops to fight against Ukraine)?
You are exhausting, Dienne. Your love and admiration for Putin is beyond my ken.
LikeLike
Dienne,
Has Caitlin Johnson explained why a Russian oligarch who is close to Putin paid for Don Jr’s lavish wedding on a private island?
LikeLike
Russian oligarchs close to Putin are just friendly that way. ROFL.
LikeLike
So a Russian oligarch who is not Putin paid for the wedding of a guy with lots of money who could be of use. Wow, shocking. Do you have any proof that Putin is involved? Or is this just more guilt by association?
LikeLike
Surely Putin could not have been involved when one of his inner circle decided to foot the bill for Don Jr’s wedding.
Don Jr is a multimillionaire. Why would he want an oligarch to pay the bills?
LikeLike
You might want to be careful talking about presidents’ sons mixed up in corrupt business with oligarchs and corporations.
LikeLike
Hunter Biden was minor league compared to the Trump and Witkoff sons. They are in the game not for a couple of million, but for hundreds of millions. Maybe billions if their able to get away with it.
The IRS will never audit their returns. Maybe the Witkoffs but I doubt it.
LikeLike
breathtakingly blatant and treasonous corruption–This has become so common during the Trump Maladministration, and the Repugnican Party has been so complicit, that people barely even remark on it anymore. It’s shocking. What have we come to that such corruption is not immediate grounds for impeachment?
LikeLike
You may not agree with him, but Trump views NATO as a hostile force, as would the U.S. view any force that promised to move “not one inch” toward us and then ended up camped on our borders. BRICS is an economic alliance, not military. But if they had troops in Mexico, what do you think the U.S. would do about it? “Oh, gee, that’s just a benign economic alliance, we’re not going to worry about it”? LOL.
LikeLike
The only time that NATO turned out together to support an ally who had been attacked was September 11, 2001.
All of NATO showed up for the U.S.
Trump is an idiot. He thinks that Russia, North Korea, and China are our friends–not Canada, Mexico and NATO.
Putin’s claim that he had to attack Ykraine and slaughter its people to slow the growth of NATO backfired.
For the 100th time, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine persuaded Finland and Sweden to drop their neutrality and join NATO.
If he wanted to stop the expansion of NATO, it didn’t work.
No matter what you argue, Putin is a monster, a direct descendant of Stalin.
Zelensky knows where Putin’s billion-dollar palace is; will he dare to take it out?
LikeLike
“Zelensky knows where Putin’s billion-dollar palace is; will he dare to take it out?”
If he wants his country nuked. What do you think the U.S. would do to anyone who took out the White House or any personal presidential residence?
LikeLike
Egad, I almost missed this: Putin is a monster, a direct descendant of Stalin.”
You still think Putin is communist, don’t you? Risible.
LikeLike
I never said Putin is a Communist. He is a power-hungry, greedy oligarch who can never have too much money or power.
One by one, his competitors–those who dare to challenge his tyranny–have been murdered. They have a bad habit of falling out of windows or placing their heads in the path of a bullet. Or dying of poison used only by the Russian secret agency.
LikeLike
Oh, come on, Diane, your first sentence alone is so ludicrous you can’t be taken seriously. This was written during Trump’s first term – https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/19/25-times-trump-has-been-dangerously-hawkish-on-russia/ – and doesn’t even include the escalations in Ukraine and his war on Iran in his second term. You can’t possibly believe that none of that offends Putin.
Trump’s attempts to “make peace” in Ukraine are the same as his attempts to “make peace” in Palestine. He expects surrender, which isn’t going to happen. He’s not negotiating favorable terms for Russia – that’s why his deals keep failing.
As for Iran, read what you wrote. You admit that the U.S. and Russia are on opposite sides. I can’t even imagine the mental gymnastics it must take to twist that into Putin controlling Trump.
Please, I’m begging you, get over the propaganda you’ve been fed all your life. It’s just helping to pave the way for hot war with Russia, which none of us will survive.
LikeLike
I certainly don’t want war with Russia or with anyone else.
Everyone but you and Caitlin Johnston can see with their own eyes that Trump is subservient to Putin, like a man-crush.
I can’t forget when Trump set up a meeting with Putin in Alaska. Trump arrived first. He had US Marines roll out a red carpet for this tyrant. Trump jumped up and down with excitement at seeing his friend again.
They had a private meeting. Trump had arranged a lavish lunch for his dear friend. Putin left before the grand lunch in his honor, making Trump look more foolish than usual.
Whenever Trump claims that he is working on a peace initiative in Ukraine, he always goes first to Putin, his good friend. Never to Zelensky.
When Zelensky visited the White House, Trump and Vance humiliated him. He left in a huff.
Congress is pro-Ukraine because even the Republicans are in the side of our allies in NATO. Congress understands who Putin is.
Trump doesn’t.
Your cult-like devotion to Putin is no longer amusing.
LikeLike
No, Diane, most of the world now knows all of Russiagate was fake and it’s all been debunked. The things you mention are just the way Trump is, it has nothing to do with any subservience to Putin. I think arming Putin’s enemies and bombing his allies very much outweighs any fancy dinner.
You can continue to be wrong about this, but I’m done here. Have the last word if you’d like it.
LikeLike
No one but lefty lunatics and MAGA fanatics thinks that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election.
LikeLike
Seriously, who is paying you to endlessly apologize for and rationalize Putin’s global mobster racket?
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a bizarre (but sadly common) response! Who do you think would pay for posts that don’t align with the U.S. power structure (and where do I pick up my check? LOL!) Do you think Putin is paying me? Really? Does that make sense to you? He doesn’t know (or care) that I exist.
But you know who does get paid to post propaganda? U.S. and western media. Lots. Maddow alone has gotten paid tens of millions to parrot the Russiagate narrative. Have you ever wondered why the U.S. media is so uniformly in sync? Does it really matter if you watch CNN or ABC or MSNOW or read the NYT or WaPo? Do you get any different perspectives from any of those sources? If they’re so “independent”, why do they always follow the neoliberal western narrative? Have you paid attention to what happens to media members who fail to spout the proper lines?
I always come back to the famous joke about the American and Russian guys sitting next to each other on a flight from Moscow to Washington D.C. The American asks the Russian what brings him to the States. The Russian answers, “I want to study American propaganda.” Floored, the American blurts, “American propaganda?! We don’t have propaganda!” “Exactly, answers the Russian.
Incidentally, Diane, I note you didn’t post my response to you. Glad that you support free speech.
LikeLike
I haven’t seen any members of the media fall out of windows or get a bullet in the head. That’s a common danger of criticizing your hero Putin.
I admit it: there are limits to what I will post, and I have said so repeatedly. Conspiracy theories–like those you frequently spout–are not okay on this blog.
LikeLike
Dienne has never acknowledged that Russia invaded Ukraine. She has repeatedly said that Ukrainians are Nazis (as Putin claimed) and that Putin was compelled to stop the growth of NATO. His invasion had the opposite effect: Finland and Sweden gave up their neutrality and joined NATO to oppose Russian aggression. But Dienne knows more that the leaders of those countries.
LikeLike
“Trump unilaterally pulled out of nuclear treaties with Russia.”
Yup. He gave his handler Vladimir precisely what the latter wanted. Trump unilaterally, without consultation with Congress or with traditional U.S. allies, pulled out of the INF Treaty that Reagan negotiated with Russia and the Open Skies Treaty, which allowed the U.S. and Russia to fly planes over one another’s territory to verify with surveillance each other’s compliance with arms treaties, and Trump–La Puta to Putin–did this AT THE VERY TIME WHEN PUTIN WAS DEPLOYING HYPERSONIC NUCLEAR MISSILES THAT COULD REACH THE U.S. IN ELEVEN MINUTES. Trump has LONG worked for the other side–ever since his 1984 visit to Russia, at Russia’s invitation, aboard a KGB plane. Trump has LONG been a Russian asset. This is breathtakingly obvious. That such a man became president of the United States has to be THE SINGLE GREATEST INTELLIGENCE FAILURE IN HISTORY.
LikeLike
I know one shouldn’t argue with delusions because then one becomes part of the delusion, but the idea that Putin was happy about Trump unilaterally pulling out of the INF treaty is just sheer batsh!ttery.
LikeLike
I repeat, that Trump, who is obviously a Russian asset, became president of the United States is without doubt the greatest intelligence failure in history.
LikeLike
You can repeat it as many times as you want. It doesn’t make it true.
LikeLike
Just so you know, out here in my neck of the woods (gilroy, ca) gas just went up about 60 cents in the last few weeks. I paid 5.29 on a good day. According to Gas Buddy at Costco, it is now $5.90; yesterday it was $5.85. Diesel hit 8.39 at Rotten Robbie just two hours ago. And with diesel goes prices up on everything.
LikeLike
I’m going to make all of you angry, but you all know I’m right.
We need to:
1) Embrace nuclear energy, yesterday, big time, and investigate links between anti-nuclear activists and foreign governments.
2) Take our vehicle fleet fully electric, yesterday. Tesla shows what’s possible here, and investigate links between anti-Tesla activists and foreign governments.
3) Investigate California’s high-speed rail project for massive public corruption; until we put people in jail we’re not going be able to build the kind fo transportion system that’s needed for a 21st century nation.
4) Increase our defense budget, massively; we need armored divisions and air support pre-placed and deployed in depth across Europe to deter further aggression. That would have worked with Hitler, it will work with Putin.
5) We need to accelerate America’s military and industrial efforts in space; owning the high ground, space, is the best long-term deterrent against Russian aggression.
LikeLike
“…bizarre response…”, “…parrot the Russiagate narrative…” Your gaslighting is as patently obvious as it is ineffective. Sad. I hope you find your way out of the Putin adoration cult you so gleefully inhabit.
LikeLike