A Chokepoint for World Trade

September 10th, 2026. 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-Al-Mandab Strait, another choke point 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 12 to 15% of the global maritime trade every year worth about a trillion dollars. 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-Al-Mandab 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 8th, 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, or IRGC, have guided the Houthi advance. And according to Zachary Cohen, Katie Bolilis, and Kylie Atwood of CNN, US officials think that hundreds of IRGC officers are currently in Yemen, working with the Houthis to shut down the Bab-Al-Mandab. The journalist's note that CNN has previously reported that in case US negotiations were unsuccessful, Iran had planned an economic nuclear option, closing the Bab-Al-Mandab. Cohen, Lilis, and Atwood reported this afternoon that more than 100 US 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 US routinely shares intelligence with the Saudis, and that it is neither participating directly in the strikes nor providing operational support. Still, US air strikes on the Houthis killed 153 civilians and wounded 243 others in Yemen in 2025. The price of oil jumped to $109 a barrel, and US gasoline rose to an average of about $4.28 a gallon. Gas Buddy said the national average price of diesel had hit $6 for the first time in history. Just a year ago, the national average was about $3.70. Gas Buddy 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. Gas Buddy's head of petroleum analysis, Patrick DeHon, 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 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker, so God gave us Trump." Letters from an American was written and read by Heather Cox Richardson. It was produced at Soundscape Productions, "Dad and Massachusetts," recorded with music composed by Michael Moss.