Ukraine battlefront news and the city of Orikhiv in Zap oblast the Russians have completed a 3 sided cauldron from which they can concentrate ranged fires on Ukrainian positions while the Russian infantry occupy southern parts up to the city center.
Interestingly the Russians have already started to move north towards Zaporizhzhia city itself on an extended move the the west pincer surrounding Orikhiv.
As mentioned in previous posts there are only open fields between Orikhiv and Zap city.
The Russians are completing their cauldron around Druzhkivka, the first city of the Druzhkivka Kramatorsk Sloviansk conurbation while Russian forces along the battlefront east of the whole conurbation are within just 4km of the linked Ukrainian cities in many places.
The Russians look to be manoeuvring to place the whole conurbation in a huge cauldron cutting all supply routes. The Ukrainian authorities have just issued final civilian evacuation orders for the whole region.
And a large Russian cauldron in north Kharkov oblast is being closed trapping an estimated 1000 Ukrainian troops as Russian forces move closer to Kharkov itself, Ukraine's second largest city.
US intel has warned Kiev that the Russians are about to start a new wave of massive drone and missile attacks on power supply infrastructure throughout the region.
In the Gulf and MBS, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler could be in trouble following a series of bad decisions concerning the on/off war with the Houtis. MBS just made a series of calls to Trump begging for the US to start bombing the Houthis but Trump refused. Seems there is a rising tide of disgruntlement of his rule. Reports are that the Houthis are basically letting everything through the Red Sea choke point except western and Saudi tankers.
Prof Jiang on game theory in interview on the US and Iran war:
Take a look at the Timestamp links in the video description section for options to pick and choose topics.
Some of the topics in brief:
The world is too far down the road of industrial globalism and interconnectedness to suddenly stop now.
The western world provides financial services, China provides manufacturing and the rest of the world provides commodities and raw materials.
To break up modern global interconnectiveness and dependance would cause a catastrophic disruption to supply chains causing wars, famine and sudden mass migrations that would collapse civilisations.
Iran could be about to escalate and attack more trade transport pinch points in order to stop international trade and hasten a global recession in response to continued US attacks, their own economy is already in recession after all so why not.
The US can't just walk away from the Iran war and risk the destruction of the Petrodollar system which is the root of modern global trade. The US needs to win the Iran war and control Iran in order to prevent the collapse of regional and global trade.
The world is facing a potential civilisational collapse equal to the collapse of the Bronze age where many cities that had survived for 2 thousand years were destroyed by conflict and wars in the space of just 50 years.
Global trade needs to continue and technology needs to develop to overcome the problems the world is currently facing today and will face tomorrow.
Trump currently can’t win this war as things stand and so in order not to lose he will be pushed into major escalation and destroy Iran's civilian infrastructure.
Iran will respond by destroying the Gulf states infrastructure and the US will be left to pick up the pieces and take control not just of Iran but the whole region.
Interesting opinion, 1 hour 50 min video linked below.
Professor Jiang Predicts: The Next 9/11 Will Target Your Bank Account!
BREAKING: MAJOR SAUDI PIPELINE OFF FOR WEEKS, OIL REACHES WARTIME HIGHS - w/ Philip Pilkington
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It all comes down to the Dollar, Gold and Oil. Donald Trump wants the Fed to lower rates but the Fed really needs to raise rates because inflation remains high and thanks to oil price increases is going higher, the Fed also needs to keep it real with regards to the longer term treasury rates that the market, not the Fed controls which are trending higher.
And if the dollar starts paying more in interest then gold will look weaker by comparison because gold doesn’t pay any interest at all. But then if the interest rates continue to climb making it increasingly difficult to pay the interest on US debt and potential default then gold as a safe haven will look increasingly more attractive over the dollar.
So tomorrow it’s the Fed versus the Don, the markets have priced in a rate rise at a 90% certainty level, if the Fed holds or lowers the rate expect fireworks from the market. If the Fed raises rates expect fireworks from the Don.
And speaking of inflation shipping oil tanker rental rates have increased from $100,000 a day to $1 million a day and from my Saturday post reporting diesel in the US hitting $6 a gallon the National average just 4 days later is now $6.30. Meanwhile just 4 vessels went through the Straits on Monday having gained permission from Iran and Oman and all 4 were bound for China.
The US had nothing to do with it and for the sake of the global oil supply and relations with China didn’t stop the ships, so really there is no US blockade no matter what Trump says.
And to top it all both China and the West are having to come back into the markets to buy oil having run down their reserves with no resolving of the conflict that is causing the supply crunch. And so the only route open now is severe demand destruction for the entire global economy.
Reminder that Trump could stop both wars within 24 hours by just walking away. Reminder too that Trump told Zelensky to stop hitting Russian oil refineries which Zelensky just ignored.
COL. Douglas Macgregor : Can Trump Get Out of Iran?
The Fed defied Trump and raised interest rates yesterday by 25 basis points from 3.75% to 4% by a unanimous 12 to 0 vote and signalled more hikes were on the way.
And indeed more inflationary pressure is coming.
Saudi cancels September oil shipments to Europe and says October is looking doubtful as well.
Reports that the UK government will be raising the consumer protection electricity price cap in January as more big price rises are expected to hit suppliers as demand increases over winter due to natural gas and oil price increases.
Don’t mention that the summer was the sunniest for decades, unfortunately the hundreds of billions spent on renewables still hasn’t solved the mass storage problem.
Libya halts all oil exports claiming force majeure as protests sweep through the country.
Russia bans the export of sulfuric acid, the key ingredient in fertiliser, China did the same several weeks ago and with exports from the Gulf halted, that’s the top 3 big exporters gone.
A US oil refinery shut down in urgent need of repairs, US have been pushing their workload to help alleviate the shortages running at over 90% capacity when normal operation is a consistent 50% with maintenance stoppages included. The other refineries have been doing the same so expect more breakdowns.
The US is considering a diesel export ban to protect the home market, Russia did ban exports several weeks ago.
I hope the US doesn't move on to a natural gas export ban or Europe is completely #@&#ed.
And just in case, governments are exactly the same as companies when it comes to defaulting on debt. They are not actually defaulting, oh no, they'll be ‘restructuring’ their debt as the US did in the 1930s, oh yes. Plenty of countries' economies are now on the verge so listen out for it though many still have US treasuries to sell first.
The middle east goes from bad to worse for the US, Saudi is desperately looking for alliances with countries other than the US after Trump refused their request for aid. Even Israel was approached along with former enemy regional states.
With the Houthis on the rampage not unlike Iraq under Saddam Hussian in the 90s, is the US now facing an imperative to mount a major land war? US disentanglement is getting much more difficult with each passing week and the choice of just walking away is becoming more distant.
Video linked below 2 of my favourites, Brendon Weichert and Robert Barnes.
“But it feels very much like the world post World War I where the whole world was just in flux and you'd had no idea. I mean empires disappeared overnight. Austro Hungarian empire 600 years, gone. British Empire, a century and a half, gone. Ottoman Empire, 600 years, gone. The Russian Empire, 300 years, gone. All in 10 years or less.”
MASSIE MOVES TO IMPEACH HEGSETH - w/ Robert Barnes
