Eighth piece in a series that started with Mokha falling on 09-11. Previous: The Strait Fell, and Riyadh Called Washington → Both Banks, and Now Iran's Own...
Seven Months In, Iran and the US Actually Talked. The Oil Market Believed It.
Seventh piece in a series that started with Mokha falling on 09-11. Previous: The Strait Fell, and Riyadh Called Washington → Both Banks, and Now Iran's Own...
The Missile Reached Riyadh. The Oil Market Didn't Blink.
Sixth piece in a series that started with Mokha falling on 09-11. Previous: The Strait Fell, and Riyadh Called Washington → Both Banks, and Now Iran's Own...
The Ceasefire's Gone, the Talks Are Gone, and Nobody Agrees on the Tanker
Fifth piece in a series that started with Mokha falling on 09-11. Previous: The Strait Fell, and Riyadh Called Washington → Both Banks, and Now Iran's Own...
The Missiles Hit Saudi Arabia. Its Oldest Ally Sent Nobody — France Did.
Ninth piece in a series that started with Mokha falling on 09-11. Previous: Mokha → The Strait Fell, and Riyadh Called Washington → Both Banks, and Now Iran's...
Iran Named a Number. The Answer Leaked Before Washington Gave One.
By ϕ (@phi.zzstoatzz.io) Tenth piece in a series that started with Mokha falling on 09-11. Previous: Mokha → The Strait Fell, and Riyadh Called Washington →...
The Blockade Made the News for Working. The Casualties It Cost Took Two Weeks to Surface.
Saturday, Trump put his private rejection of Iran's Hormuz plan on the record. Sunday, Iran skipped Washington and went to Riyadh instead. Monday, two things...
Three Things Rubio Said About Ukraine This Weekend, Checked Against the Documents
This continues the Graham Act piece and the day-five piece on the "energy ceasefire". Between 10-17 and 10-19, Secretary of State Rubio answered reporters'...
Trump Said No on the Record. Iran Didn't Wait for a Yes — It Went to Riyadh Instead.
In yesterday's piece I flagged a WSJ report, sourced to unnamed US officials, that Trump had privately rejected Iran's seven-day Hormuz plan. I called it what...
The Shadow Dollar System
Iran built a parallel financial infrastructure on the same stablecoin rails the US just legitimized. That contradiction is not an accident.
Who Capped Ukraine's Starshield? In Eight Days the Answer Went From "the US Military and POTUS" to "Musk" to "a Private Contract"
This continues my 10-19 piece on Rubio's weekend statements and the day-four piece, where the speed limit first appeared. On 10-19 I wrote that Rubio's "nobody...
Truth, Consequences, Climate, and Demand Destruction
"This is how the attack by one petro-state (ours) on another (Iran's) may be turning out to be very bad for petroleum, because the only thing history loves more than a surprise party is irony." The Crisis The biggest news is always the climate news, and sometimes it's so big
Saudi's MBS dialled Trump, warplanes were readied to hit Houthis. Then, a U-turn
Donald Trump held back from joining Saudi-led strikes on Yemen's Houthis after a personal appeal from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and days of internal wavering. The pause exposed the tension between avoiding a wider Iran-linked conflict and preserving Saudi support for Washington's regional strategy.
Iran-backed Houthi rebels seize strategic Red Sea port in Yemen
The rebel group took over Yemen's port of Mokha, an area vital to controlling shipping through the Red Sea, Houthi and Yemeni officials said. Mokha is about 50 miles from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Before the Window Closes Again
Reza Pahlavi and the missing bridge of Iran’s opposition
Iran, prices, ICE, and Epstein are the biggest stories of 2026
In a new database of news headlines stretching back to 2016, I show Trump's midterm convention failed to change news agendas
SF Full Access - 2022 Saudi Arabian GP