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Sep 15, 2026 - World

A U.S. market crash could be just around the corner “directly as a result” of a recent Middle East development and a confluence of other factors, political analysts Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti warned on Monday.Last week, the Yemeni militant organization the Houthis gained significant control over the Bab al-Mandeb Strait — a critical global shipping chokepoint in the Red Sea — after seizing control of Yemen’s west coast and Mayyun island, which divides the strait into two channels. The Saudi Arabian East-West oil pipeline was also damaged in an attack originating from Iraq, threatening 4% of global oil supply.The developments come as oil prices continue to surge to what Ball called “extraordinarily dire” levels amid the months-long disruption of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.Experts have already warned that the disruption to trade through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait could inflict a global “inflationary shock,” but Enjeti warned that a confluence of other factors specific to the United States could soon send the U.S. economy into freefall.“This could be it,” Enjeti warned in an episode of the political program “Breaking Points” that aired on Monday.Specifically, Enjeti pointed to the extent to which the artificial intelligence (AI) industry is propping up the U.S. economy, with Deloitte finding that “AI-fueled tech investments” accounted for “about half” of real U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth since 2025. With AI tech leaders unanimously calling for a “slowdown” in recent days amid fears that the rapidly developing tech could "destroy humanity,” the combination of Iran-war-caused inflation and slowdowns in AI investments could be catastrophic, Enjeti warned.“Let's say you have a unilateral tech slowdown, which is propping up the entire U.S. economy, [and] people wake up to diesel going $6.23 a gallon — it was $6 last week, and that was the all-time high — that's where we're at!” Enjeti said. “You've got crushing consumer sentiment, you've got $4.31 a gallon in gasoline, $6.23 diesel... that, combined with the genuine downturn in the U.S. stock market, [and] we are living in a whole [different] universe at that point. That would actually lead to... I can't even imagine. You would have Federal Reserve behavior, unemployment could skyrocket.”The tools and circumstances that have kept the U.S. market somewhat stable throughout President Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular war against Iran, Ball warned, were also close to expiring.“There were all sorts of cushions that were in place: China, which dramatically reduced their [oil] buying, our Strategic Petroleum Reserve that we were drawing [from], [the Saudis] were able to use this East-West pipeline to get more barrels out of the region,” Ball noted. “Now, it feels like all of those previous pieces which cushioned the blow are falling away, and Trump's ability to market manipulate has also seemingly fallen away.”

Sep 15, 2026 - World

A lightning offensive by Iranian-backed Houthi militants along Yemen's Red Sea coast has handed Tehran fresh leverage in its economic standoff with Washington, giving Iran the ability to threaten a chokepoint even busier than the Strait of Hormuz.The Houthis swept through the towns of Mokha and Dhabab last week and seized the island of Perim, cementing control over the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the mouth of the Red Sea, known as the "Gate of Tears," and notching a stunning strategic victory, experts told the Washington Post."This is a major, almost unprecedented, strategic achievement for Iran and the Houthis," said Dennis Citrinowicz, an Iran expert at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv and a former Israeli military intelligence analyst. "At precisely the moment when Tehran is trying to drive up the economic cost of its confrontation with the United States, the Houthi advance gives Iran enormous additional leverage."About 8.7 percent of global seaborne trade passes through the strait, according to U.N. figures, including 20 percent of container and car shipments and 15 percent of oil products. With Iran-aligned forces now near both Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, Tehran could squeeze Washington on multiple fronts.The timing is damaging for President Donald Trump, who faces political pressure from an unpopular war with Iran and rising energy prices two months before the Nov. 3 midterms.Trump has acknowledged he does not expect to end the conflict or lower gas prices before Election Day. Oil has jumped above $100 a barrel, its highest level since May."Friday was the first day that Iran really started winning the war," one Yemeni official aligned with the Saudi-backed government told the Post, speaking anonymously.Trump struck a softer tone Saturday, telling reporters "the Houthis called us" and claiming they "don't want to fight with us," adding that "they are letting most ships go through."Yet the advance came alongside a drone strike, likely by Iran-backed Iraqi militias, on a Saudi pipeline moving 7 million barrels of oil daily toward the Red Sea — a pattern analysts see as coordination between Tehran and its proxies.Sima Shine, a former head of analysis at Mossad, said Iran is exploiting the pre-election window to drive up prices and pressure Trump on multiple fronts. Bahrain-based commentator Abdullah al-Junaid said a renewed U.S. campaign is unlikely given how thin American naval assets are.Citrinowicz said Iran is now close to choking off nearly all of Saudi Arabia's export routes. "What makes this particularly serious is that there is no obvious solution on the horizon, military or economic," he said.

Sep 15, 2026 - World

Kasim and Sulaiman Khan tell Guardian they believe ex-PM is being ‘slowly killed’ by harsh treatment, driven by Asim MunirThe sons of Imran Khan have accused Pakistan’s powerful army chief of a “personal vendetta” against the incarcerated former prime minister and expressed fears their father is being “slowly killed” in jail, as international pressure mounts over his prison conditions.Kasim Khan, 27, and Sulaiman Khan, 29, have become strong advocates for the release of their father, who has been held in Adiala prison in Rawalpindi since his arrest in 2023, and is serving a 14-year sentence on corruption charges. Continue reading...

Sep 15, 2026 - World

After a five-storey building collapsed in Delhi, focus is on how urban areas can adapt to growing populations. Plus, Ahmedabad’s ace newspaper delivery driver goes viral• Don’t get This is India delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereRecently, I may have saved a woman’s life on the road. Somehow, this was something I had expected to happen.On that day, I saw a truck leave a construction site with a tangled wire trailing behind. I frantically looked to see what the wire was attached to and spotted the scaffolding a few meters ahead. I shrieked and grabbed the hand of the woman walking in front of me just as the metal pipes came crashing down. We hugged for a brief second, and then walked our separate ways. Continue reading...

Nov 21, 2025 - World

The Queen's coffin will lie in state at Westminster Hall until her funeral on Monday.View Entire Post ›