BREAKING - North Korea fires ballistic missile toward East Sea, South Korean military says

NORTH KOREAN MISSILE LANDS OUTSIDE JAPAN'S EEZ - NTV ...

🚢 🇾🇪 🌍 A new Suez crisis threatens the world economy

🔶️ Bab al-Mandab is a narrow strait between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula through which an estimated 12% of global trade by volume normally flows, and perhaps 30% of global container traffic. It has become a no-go zone as the Houthis, based in Yemen, attack shipping, ostensibly in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.

🔶️ The crisis has two big implications; one for the world economy and the other regarding the risks of military escalation in the Middle East as Western countries try to re-establish order. Start with the economy. Revenue from the Suez canal is a major source of income for Egypt, which is already in the midst of a financial crisis. Israel will be less affected, with only about 5% of its trade passing through Eilat, its Red Sea port. For the world economy a prolonged closure of the Suez route would raise the costs of trade as shipping is rerouted around Africa, taking more time, and insurance premiums soar. Short-term supply-chain snarls could also result from wide-scale rerouting of trade: in 2021 the Ever Given, a Taiwanese-operated ship, ran aground and blocked the canal for six days, amplifying a global supply-chain crunch. If the Red Sea security crisis is perceived to threaten shipping in the nearby Arabian Sea, through which perhaps one-third of global seaborn oil supply passes, the economic costs would be dramatically higher.

🔶️ Nonetheless, a bigger military response to the Houthi threat is now likely. A multinational task force, currently led by America’s navy, is already operating off the Yemeni coast in order to try to deter the Houthis from forcibly boarding ships—a raid was disrupted in November—or firing missiles. It includes both Egypt and Saudi Arabia. In recent weeks American, British and French warships have all intercepted Houthi drones and missiles, and America has asked Australia to send a warship, too.

🔶️ But this defensive armada has struggled to keep the crisis under control. The Houthis have demonstrated that a few drones and missiles are always likely to get through. One potential next step involves armed escorts for merchant shipping, which America used during the so-called tanker war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. But these are resource intensive, requiring a very large number of warships, according to naval sources involved in the debate.

🔶️ The main alternative is to strike the Houthis and their arsenal directly. America and Israel have both developed plans to attack Houthi depots and launchers. America will be loth to broaden its involvement in the Middle East: the Biden administration had been focused on expanding the Red Sea task force and putting diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran. Israel does not want a new conflict: it is already facing pressure from America to wind down this phase of the Gaza war, and is concerned about Hizbullah, the Lebanese militant group, which has been firing missiles at Israel almost daily. Yet if Iran and its Houthi proxies continue attacks that keep one of the world’s major trade routes closed, escalation may be inevitable.■

https://www.economist.com/international/2023/12/16/a-new-suez-crisis-threatens-the-world-economy

https://archive.ph/70DZE

🚢 🇪🇬 💵 "55 ships avoiding the canal, at about $500k/transit, represents a loss of $27.5 million to Egypt.

🔶️ On average 50 to 90 ships go through the canal daily, so this is not major; YET.

🔶️ The bigger issue is the delays in deliveries & upset schedules this will cause in the ports."

https://gcaptain.com/egypt-suez-canal-55-ship-reroutes-since-november-2023

📎 Sal Mercogliano

Google will be changing the way it handles location data so that it's no longer possible to provide location data for warrents.

This is good for us as it will now be harder for feds to unconstitutionally track your every move.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/end-geofence-warrants

⚠️ Confirmed: Live metrics show a nation-scale disruption to social media platforms across #Pakistan, including X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube; the incident comes just ahead of a major virtual gathering organized by persecuted opposition leader Imran Khan's party, PTI

⚓️ 🇺🇸 🌍 Three US destroyers entered Mediterranean Sea via Strait of Gibraltar recently.

⬛️USS Laboon (DDG-58): Dec. 11
⬛️USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119): Dec. 14
⬛️USS The Sullivans (DDG-68): Dec. 17

🔶️ US officials would not comment on if they are heading to Red Sea.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/16/houthi-attacks-red-sea-u-s-warships-00132146

📎 Ryan Chan 陳家翹

BREAKING: North Korea fires second ballistic missile toward East Sea within 24 hours, South Korea says

🇪🇺 EU'S BRETON: EU OPENS FORMAL INFRINGEMENT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST X ...

JUST IN - EU Commission has opened formal proceedings against Elon Musk's platform X under the Digital Services Act, citing "disinformation, illegal content, deceptive design."

https://x.com/ThierryBreton/status/1736701607553692020

@disclosetv

JUST IN - Oil giant BP pauses all tanker transits through the Red Sea. Oil prices surge.

Taiwan's Evergreen shipping line also pauses all transits.

https://www.disclose.tv/id/pwhdi4ubld/

@disclosetv

🛢️ OIL PRICES EXTEND GAINS, WTI FUTURES RISE BY $2 TO SESSION HIGH OF $73.91 A BARREL #OOTT ...