oil

The United States is at war with Iran and mired in protracted Middle Eastern maneuvering. And now it faces a blow from an entirely different direction — from its own northern neighbor. Canada is methodically redirecting its oil flows toward China. Washington's share of Canadian exports is falling to a historic low. And this is happening at precisely the moment when Washington can least afford to lose access to a cheap, nearby source of hydrocarbons.

Who are Yemen's Houthis, and how many of them are there today? They are a Shia insurgent movement that officially calls itself "Ansar Allah." The group controls territory home to 60-65% of Yemen's population. Its armed forces number up to 350,000 fighters. This week, in September 2026, the movement broke through to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, sending world oil prices surging past 100 dollars a barrel.

Who the Houthis Are and Where the Name Comes From

A Month-Long Lull, Then Fire Again

On August 30, the U.S. military struck two Iranian missile launchers on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. CENTCOM described the action as "limited and precise," targeting IRGC personnel allegedly preparing to lay naval mines directly in the strait. According to unofficial reports, two people were killed and two others wounded. It was the first known American strike since late July, when Trump himself ordered a pause in operations against Iran.

It is hard to find a more contradictory and painful image for Venezuela than this one: a country whose president was bombed, captured, kidnapped and taken out of its own territory by the United States is now celebrating oil agreements with the very same power that, only yesterday, was exercising a relationship of force over it.

Baku has sharply shifted its tone toward the Kremlin, and the reason behind this change sounds far more mundane than loud statements about sovereignty. What actually stung the Azerbaijani leader was not geopolitical rivalry but a thoroughly earthly question: who gets access to profitable energy transit routes through Ukrainian territory, and who ends up left holding wrecked infrastructure.

The Grievance Is About Money, Not Politics

Cuba on the Edge: Why the U.S. Is Squeezing the Island Harder Than Ever

How far can the economic pressure of one superpower on a sovereign state actually go? Cuba in 2026 is a living textbook case: the country is going through its worst crisis since the 1959 revolution, worse even than the "Special Period" that followed the collapse of the USSR, and this is happening not because of a natural disaster but because of a deliberate oil blockade orchestrated by Washington.

If you live in a major city and rely on a car, public transport, or simply depend on ambulance services and municipal utilities functioning properly, fuel security has stopped being an abstract infrastructure topic. It has become a question of everyday resilience — especially against the backdrop of what 2026 revealed: even developed European capitals can find themselves on the brink of a physical fuel shortage within a matter of weeks.

Why This Issue Has Become Urgent Right Now

If you hold shares in oil companies, are planning to invest in solar panels, or simply pay your heating bill, the outcome of this race will shape your financial reality for the next two decades - not some abstract "environmental agenda." Spoiler: there will be no clear-cut winner. Instead, there will be a slow, uneven redistribution of roles, in which both sides claim their share of the market, but on entirely different time horizons.

The Investment Shift Has Already Happened - Demand Hasn't Caught Up

By propping up the Japanese yen, the United States is effectively propping up its own dollar and, more importantly, the market for its own government bonds. The question is how much longer this dance can continue before energy prices force Japan to choose between saving its currency and paying its oil bills.

Friendship Worth $74 Billion

The world in 2026 exists in a state of permanent geopolitical turbulence, and every new strike on an oil terminal or gas pipeline no longer registers as an abstract news headline but as a concrete figure on a store price tag.

Oil as a Hostage to Geopolitics