But first, from Time magazine: $100 The price of oil hit $100 a barrel on Thursday for the first time since May. It comes after the Houthis of Yemen struck two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, enforcing a long-threatened blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another shipping route crucial to the world’s energy supplies. From the New York Times (Sam Sifton) this morning: The Trump administration has imposed new tariffs on goods from more than 80 countries . The tariffs, along with the war in Iran, are threatening the U.S. economy . For my readership, here are some upcoming journeys. August-September 2026: Total Eclipse of the Sun . Ever see a total eclipse of the Sun? This is the one where you will feel that extra chill, gets almost dark and some animals think it is the end of the day. My one experience was on 11July1991 over the Big Island of Hawaii on by wife's birthday . To quote that posting, it is pretty amazing that the coverage is...
Petroleum surged past $100/barrel after Iran's Houthie allies opened a new front in the Iran War: President Donald Trump promised today “major military punishment” for Iran and its Houthi allies, after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, extending the Middle East war to a second major shipping chokepoint. Here is thus the current situation: Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain depend almost entirely on Hormuz to export their oil or liquefied natural gas. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also heavily reliant on the waterway but have pipelines connecting production centres to alternative terminals on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Oman. During the Strait of Hormuz’s essential closure for most of the past five months, Saudi Arabia redirected growing volumes of crude through Yanbu. The port exported about 4.1 million barrels per day in June, rerouting roughly 64 percent of the Saudi oil that would otherwise have left through Hormuz, according to Kpler....