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Houthis 'take control' of key island in global shipping route
- kevmo 5d ago[flagged]
- consumer451 5d agoThis is real news. They just captured a bunch of modern Saudi-supplied equipment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThW3uz62XvI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThW3uz62XvI
- kevmo 5d agoYes, I know its real news. I am speaking to the title. It's always "The Houthis did this" or "Houthi-controlled areas do X". They need to just stop promoting alternative facts and call it Yemen.
- imglorp 5d agoThe Al Jazeera headline is "Houthis hail operation as they take over Red Sea coastline". An explainer further down is "Houthis capture Yemeni town of Mocha: Why it’s important". All three headlines seem pretty neutral, no?
- sobellian 5d agoIf, as you desire, we wrote that Yemen captured the island, who did they capture it from? Not-Yemen? That's just confusing for a civil war.
- deleted 5d ago[deleted]
- yorwba 5d agoLast I checked, they control most of the population centers, but not most of the country by area: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Yemeni_Civil_War_detailed_map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Yemeni_Civil_War_deta...
- mschuster91 5d ago> At this point, the Houthis control Yemen. BBC and the gang are just promoting Western propaganda by pretending otherwise. News media generally report the de iure situation, not the de facto situation. And de iure, Yemen still has a regular government, and the Houthi are a bunch of rebels.
- GlacierFox 5d agode iure - Original classic Latin spelling. Lovely.
- ExoticPearTree 5d ago[flagged]
- kevmo 5d ago[flagged]
- consumer451 5d agoNo, this is actual journalism. When it's from a direct single source, it's a quote, not an agreed upon fact.
- kevmo 5d agoI would agree if they were actually quoting someone or if it was a more substantial quote. In this case, it appears to be an anonymous source.
- carlosjobim 5d agoFrom the text: "a government source says", "In a statement, the Houthis say", "The group also claims...", "They group's military spokesman claims...".
- afavour 5d agoIt’s in quotation marks because it’s a quotation. The BBC have not independently verified that the Houthis have taken control of the island, they are reporting what a government source has said.
- josefritzishere 5d agoFor a superpower, the U.S. doesn't seem to be doing well. It's hard to tell if it's pure mismanagement or more of a systemic decline.
- littlecranky67 5d agoWill this bring oil prices down in Europe? Oil tankers could still go to the mediteranian via the suez canal. This will not help asia, but I can imagine if it is too dangerous the go through bab al-mandab strait it is more lucrative to sell the crude oil to europe at a discount?
- alephnerd 5d ago> Will this bring oil prices down in Europe ... This will not help Asia This hurts Europe more than Asia. The UK, France, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, and others are similarly opposed to the Houthis having conducted airstrikes on the Houthis (eg. 2025) as well as helping target them directly or indirectly. And a large portion of global shipping is owned by Greek conglomerates - a country that is a close ally of Israel. Most GCC states also have some form of defense agreement with the UK or France. If those turn out to be meaningless, it reduces their incentive to cut preferential deals with European states. Additionally, this further enhances Turkiye and Pakistan's hand, as Saudi Arabia has signed defense pacts with both and Pakistan has threatened action against Iran yesterday if further incidents threaten Saudi Arabia. If they were able to dislodge the Houthis without direct European intervention, then it is a massive black stain on the EU's power projection capacity and it's claim that it should be treated as a great power. It also gives Turkiye additional leverage against the EU. Finally, the Houthis struck the East-West Pipeline [0]. Much of the KSA's oil is in Eastern Saudi Arabia around Dhahran. Most large Asian states like China, India, Japan, and South Korea have continued operations in Iran that allowed them continued passage. European states lack access to GCC oil as a result of Perim island being controlled by the Houthis. [0] - https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthis-reach-strategic-island-mouth-vital-shipping-lane-2026-09-11/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/yemens-houthis-rea...
- eagleal 5d agoYeah the EU leadership has been really shortsighted on these past decades (especially since the 10s), especially in their strategic energy and industrial sectors. Be it the Ukranian conflict, the ME crisis, the NA wars and instabilities, etc. The EU is the one that geopolitically speaking lost the most. Unless they're full puppets for foreign interests, I simply do not understand how they could leave foreign actors to dictate policies that affect thier own territory and enterprises without any sort of critical thought. But even then, they could not have possibly been all mere puppets. And yet.
- newsclues 5d ago[flagged]
- muddi900 5d agoI guess we know why OpenAI and Claude went down at the same time.
- qw12kl 5d agoSo Misanthropic is violating US export regulations. Off to prison with torrent-thief Amodei.
- ActionHank 5d agoWhy is this noteworthy? If it's commercially available online it is reasonable to assume your enemies have access to it.
- gowld 5d agoUpdated Sept. 11, 2026 9:49 am ET is less than 30 minutes ago
- shagie 5d agoBecause https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49658682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49658682 wasn't posted until 8 minutes after your comment.
- strictnein 5d agoThe report was discussed yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647300 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49647300
- alt227 5d agoWow, a very literal whataboutism!
- stronglikedan 5d agoCuz it doesn't seem to be getting much traction: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49658682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49658682
- pknerd 5d agoTrump has decided that he'd sink along with the entire Middle east
- criddell 5d agoWhat makes you think this, out of the non-stop parade of Trump crazy bullshit, is the issue that will finally sink him?
- laimewhisps 5d agoBecause his supporters have huge trucks and need tons of gas.
- bluGill 5d agoHis supporters are a minority. There are others who voted for him as they felt it was the least bad option, but they are not supporters (and many of them regret their vote, though they probably would have stayed home, or voted third party). The supporters are a loud and vocal minority though.
- criddell 5d agoThe $5,000 dividend he's promised will buy a lot of gas.
- mythrwy 5d agoThe $5,000 dividend IS a lot of gas, and really that's all it is.
- pknerd 5d agoWait for the November
- mrkeen 5d agoHe won. The only thing sinking him is a term limit.
- softwaredoug 5d agoMy understanding is we haven’t gotten to full Hormuz apocalypse mode because the Chinese have a ton of stockpiles. And the Red Sea has been an option. Those conditions seem to be changing.
- AnotherGoodName 5d agoThe Houthis also explicitly allow Chinese vessels and Chinese ships have been able to traverse the red sea without issue. Which means China actually has more ability to access oil than other countries right now. I suspect the Chinese won’t be happy with the pipeline and refinery attacks on Saudi Arabia but i also assume that there will still be plenty of Chinese bound oil for the foreseeable future.
- 0xbadcafebee 5d agoChina has a backdoor for oil from Russia and Iran (https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-axis-of-evasion-behind-chinas-oil-trade-with-iran-and-russia/ https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/the-ax...) which is part of what feeds their massive reserves. Russia and Iran have an interest in continuing this trade since they're sanctioned by the US and most crude is priced in USD. It's not a major source of their oil due to threats of sanctions from the US, but in a pinch they can ramp it up if needed.
- bijowo1676 5d agothe reason China was using stockpiles is they want to time the gasoline price shock right to the midterm elections. The moment they stop using stockpiles and start purchasing the prices will jump
- softwaredoug 5d agoWell roughly now would be when you’d time a huge shock OTOH midterm generic ballots are much more stable than top line presidential horse race polling. So it might only matter at the margins.
- deleted 5d ago
- laimewhisps 5d agoAll we had to do was not bomb Iran (starting with a school full of girls). There was no benefit to the US in this war, it’s 100% for Israel. Bribery and blackmail, not democracy, are now determining world events.
- jswartz 5d ago[flagged]
- Paradigma11 5d agoRubio said that the US attacked because Israel would have attacked anyway. Take it up with him.
- huntertwo 5d agoIs blaming the government of Israel equivalent to blaming the Jews?
- jswartz 5d agoNot always, but often. The poster blaming everything "100%" on Israel tells me that they are not a person of nuance, and people who engage in rigid, black-and-white thinking often have overly simplistic views about how the world works (e.g. Jews control the world). Correlation does not mean causation, but it hints at it.
- tgv 5d agoIsrael means the state of Israel in this case, very clearly. Don't draw the antisemitism card for everything. You must have heard of the boy who cried wolf, surely?
- amdivia 5d agoThat's... a very convoluted way of looking at the world. If he stated any other rigid thought, as, "we must exterminate all mosquitos, they are 100% not needed", would you then conclude he's antisemitic too?
- mamonster 5d agoThat's why relying on mercs (which is what both UAE and Saudi chose in Yemen) is a double edged sword. At some point the cash isn't enough of a motivator and they will just run away.
- inglor_cz 5d agoWe seem to be in need of a mercenary Uber, where individual mercenaries will have their reputation and the potential customers will be able to check it.
- lbreakjai 5d agoIsn't it just blackwater, or whatever it's been renamed as?
- random3 5d agoLikely Palantir built it already
- tfigueroa 5d agoHideo Kojima intensifies
- zippothrowaway 5d agoOne of the later, not as good, seasons of Westworld has that as an app
- Apocryphon 5d agoXe Services rebrands yet again to eXe
- MBCook 5d agoPlease stop trying to design the torment nexus.
- dgellow 5d agoI would bet that already exists since a while
- 5d ago
- khriss 5d ago[flagged]
- lukan 5d agoYes yes, my tinfoil protected brains thinks the same! Or wait, maybe just flamewar style debates are not so welcome here, so people flag instead have another debate about who is more evil?
- MBCook 5d agoPeople can pretend whatever they want, but this affects technology heavily too. Everything you buy has to be shipped. That needs gas. Everything with plastic has oil in it. Economic downturns/depressions/panics affect investment and the amount of money available for companies to keep running. Plus consumer/business demand. Especially hard on startups who aren’t profitable or don’t even have a product out yet. Even if you ignore the extremely obvious political stuff, this will directly affect the entire audience here.
- rchaud 5d agoAs if the endless deluge of AI, Meta Glasses and Flock camera articles are full of friendly banter.
- lukan 5d agoIf you have showdead=true, you will see way, way more flagged comments under anything that is political, or even has a Israel connection in it.
- aliasxneo 5d agoWhy does that have to be the only reason? I personally think it has nothing to do with "Hacker" news, but I understand that sentiment has been in the fringe lately with HN becoming increasingly political.
- Ydarbleoj 5d ago
- andrewla 5d agoMy quibble here is with the house style "Iran-backed" that they attach to every mention of the Houthi's. While it's fine for governments to use that language, I don't think journalists should use it without being very specific to its relevance to the particular subject under discussion. The "Houthis claim major advance in Yemen - what you need to know" article could omit "Iran-backed" in its entirety and lose no information of substance, and amend the last bullet point to say that this is especially relevant given the current US-Iran conflict. As I type this I feel somewhat vindicated by the update to the page, "Iran does not dictate every Houthi decision - but they appear increasingly aligned", which I think does a good job of clarifying the relationship. It does, however, say "Iran has publicly backed the Houthis during the latest fighting. The geography helps explain why", which is useful factual evidence (since Iranian officials have indeed made public statements in support of the Houthis) but the use of "backed" in this sentence is bad style since that word has been used in exactly this context to have a much deeper meaning than Iran saying "we've got your back bro"
- makotech221 5d agoits a hint to the western audience that they're supposed to be sad about this.
- HappyPanacea 5d agoThe western audience doesn't need the hint to dislike it - the curse upon the Jews victory to Islam and shooting random vessels and taking crew hostages (very relevant here) are doing the job just fine.
- bigyabai 4d agoAccording to the Quincy Institute, the opposite happened: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-war-polling-us/ https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-war-polling-us/
- consumer451 5d agoThe first question should be: who supplies their military equipment? The next question should be: who benefits?
- ak_111 5d agoThis war started as a regime change operation in Iran, one of the shakiest regimes in the world pre-war, but ironically the war might end up with most of the nations who supported the war (either vocally or quietly) "regime changed" (loosely defined), including Israel, US, some European countries and now possibly some Gulf nations, awhile the Iranian regime seem to have tightened its grip more than ever. Yet MAGA supporters were saying early in the war that they are "plan trusters" as prior US admins sucked at regime change because it is a "skills issue" and none of the prior admins had the triple digits IQ of Hegseth, Trump and Bessent.
- danisth 5d agoNot sure where you get the shaky regime idea, but Iran was not on the verge of collapse from protests prior to the war. It may have been on the verge of more aggressive clamping down from the IRGC, but collapse wasn’t around the corner.
- somenameforme 5d agoDo you even realize that one of the only reason anybody still supports this war is precisely because of comments like yours? By dividing people into teams, and antagonizing them, you result in people never willing to stomach giving an inch and doubling down on stupid. Obviously this war has been the US' latest great failure, and at the beckoning of a foreign power which makes it especially catastrophic. If people could focus on this, rather than trying to divide things into teams and then sling mud, they'd have vastly better outcomes come November (and on) than just using it for divisive mudslinging which does nothing but ensure that all elections, regardless of how bad the decisions of a incumbent, or how awful a challenger, will remain these sort of 50/50 coinflips.
- tonmoy 5d ago“Someone was wrong, now I need to pretend they weren’t so that their feelings don’t get hurt so that we can all pretend it didn’t happen”
- deleted 5d ago
- sys32768 5d agoIn other news, Cantor Fitzgerald lost about 150 information-technology workers when the north tower collapsed on this day 25 years ago.
- 737min 5d ago[flagged]
- mrbombastic 5d agoI don’t see a single comment I would describe as celebrating this
- dismalaf 5d agoAttacking Iran and then backing down has just shown all the West's enemies that the US has no resolve.
- bicx 5d agoThe U.S. leadership has a bad habit of starting conflicts that the bulk of the population doesn't want, which leads to large political costs and resulting half-measures. Our current leadership literally ran on "no more wars." Morons.
- logicchains 5d agoYou misunderstood; it was actually "no, more wars!"
- BLKNSLVR 5d agoWorks on commission? No! Money down!
- deleted 5d ago[deleted]
- BLKNSLVR 5d ago... and now a low, and continuing to decrease, number of protective missiles.
- empath75 5d ago> the US has no resolve. This would be the wrong conclusion to take from it. Trump is incredibly unpopular domestically and the war is dumb and pointless and was sprung on the US population by surprise and planned and executed with complete and utter incompetence, and the negative economic consequences are way out of proportion to any conceivable benefit we will get out of it. It's not a lack of resolve, it's a rational reaction to incompetent leadership. "The West's enemies" have to be careful not to give the US an excuse to commit to a real war, rather than fight it with basically pocket change the way we are now while we look for a way out.
- 737min 5d agoMore properly called Ansar Allah, supported by Iranian regime, and guilty of war crimes against everyone from fellow Yemenis to people thousands of miles away. Women, gays and infidels are pubished by Houthi police.
- wuisce 5d ago[flagged]
- inglor_cz 5d agoIIRC their official slogan has literally "Curse the Jews" in it.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5d agoYep https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarkha https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarkha > "God is great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam"
- mrala 5d agoThis is also mentioned in the article that you linked: > In April 2016, during UN-brokered peace talks in Kuwait, Houthi representatives gave the United States a "sincere apology" for the "Death to America" slogan, claiming that the slogan was used for "domestic consumption as a means to attract support in the streets and create a common cause between their supporters to keep them united." > During the Red Sea crisis, Houthi supporters waved the flag of Palestine every Friday during anti-Gaza genocide and anti-western attacks on Yemen demonstrations, alongside the slogan and flag of Yemen. A new Houthi slogan appeared after the group's re-designation as a terrorist organisation: "America is the mother of terrorism" set on a red background.
- tptacek 5d agoThey did that just as they began the starvation siege of Taiz.
- sicktriple 5d agoThe Century of American Humiliation continues
- AnimalMuppet 5d agoBy your reckoning, what was the starting date?
- bhouston 5d agoThe Houthis created a fake audio of a major Yemeni commander telling his troops to retreat which was subsequently amplified on Twitter/X, telegram, etc. Apparently, this helped the Houthis advance quickly as the opposition forces were in disarray. https://x.com/BashaReport/status/2097862335494795579 https://x.com/BashaReport/status/2097862335494795579
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5d ago[flagged]
- tt24 5d ago[flagged]
- MSFT_Edging 5d agoThis is the chaos that silicon valley and the current US government has fully gotten behind.
- sejje 5d agoLiable for Yemeni troops taking orders from social media? Do they have a chain of command? Are people in charge?
- accountrequired 5d ago... even though they aren't?
- consumer451 5d agoHoly shit. This is really interesting. AI used to impersonate, social media to amplify, and that led to a significant tactical defeat? I don't want to live in interesting times anymore.
- electrondood 5d agoThey also used Claude in a fairly sophisticated way to design their missile guidance system (PDF, search for GTG-87001). https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/e50be2e51e7695dc4b1366a37a245a597377d3b5/Anthropic-Detecting-and-countering-091026.pdf https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/e50be2e51e7695dc4b1366a37a245a...
- seatac76 5d agoIf Dems win next time around they should repeal the AUMF at the very least. We cannot be at war at all times.
- ajross 5d agoThe problem is that "being at war" isn't really the problem, it's a symptom. A lawless and destabilized gulf region is the result of incomplete and inneffective military action, and in a darkly hilarious way is only treatable by more whack-a-mole warfare. It wasn't a war we could win. We fought it anyway. Now we're stuck trying to lose in a tolerable way. Which requires more fighting. At some point the balance will tip and China will take over patronage of the right selection of powers to push us out, which will disentangle western involvement (and make it their problem, of course). But at this stage there really is no hope for genuine stability.
- MBCook 5d agoOne of the best solutions would have been doing what we can to get off oil. Luckily, we reversed that policy and have been using as much oil as possible. All hail the great barrel of goo.
- superxpro12 5d agowell duh... oil companies dude. You think those executives are going to accept declining profits?
- bluGill 5d agoWhile it is hard to say, all signs point to China not wanting to take over. That isn't to say they could, but China seems content to rule their corner of the world and let the US rule the ocean. (their corner includes Taiwan which the US is not content to allow China to rule)
- LtWorf 5d agoI think USA has not been at war like less than 5 years in total since its creation. source: https://www.raffaellocortina.it/scheda-libro/piergiorgio-odifreddi/ce-del-marcio-in-occidente-9788832856651-4194.html https://www.raffaellocortina.it/scheda-libro/piergiorgio-odi... I don't have the book here with me so I cannot check the exact amount of years but it's ridiculously small.
- labrador 5d agoDonald Trump hosted roughly 20 oil and gas executives from major companies including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Occidental Petroleumat his Mar-a-Lago resort on April 11, 2024. His message to the room was essentially that giving $1 billion to his campaign was a low-cost investment that would guarantee massive financial returns for their companies Reflection Eternal | Ballad of the Black Gold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryFMKYNJeTM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryFMKYNJeTM This is the ballad of the black gold They call it Texas tea But it's bigger than a cowboy with a lasso It's deeper than a black hole Create monopolies Except they collect your fee when you pass Go Crisis international The government de facto We got no control of this fiasco Darker than the back roads Bubble hotter than Tabasco More than what you bargained for or asked for
- Byvrsakjo10 5d agoThe Houthi's have a Saudi backed adversary, I haven't heard about them lately in mainstream media how are they faring? I just thought they would be a tough resistance for the houthis restraining them from what they're currently doing
- riffraff 5d agoMy understanding is that the Saudi are basically fighting the war in Yemen but denying it's them. The de jure government has effectively lost this war ATM.
- dam_jackalopes 5d agoThey're making big noises about taking Sana’a in their current offensive and there's been heavier fighting than in recent months. Other than that, it's hard to tell. Personally, it seems like the Yemeni gov't forces have quite a hill to climb. The mainstream media has made it sound like the fall of Mocha was at least somewhat surprising, but I don't think that's accurate. It was pretty clear the Houthis would reach the port as late as last week.
- tptacek 5d agoThe Houthis are one side of a protracted civil war between North Yemen and South Yemen, which was until relatively recently two different countries, and the other side of that civil war is heavily backed by the Gulf States. The Houthis are also a Shiite minority opposing an overwhelmingly Sunni population.
- 737min 5d agoAnsar Allah (Houthis) is a terrible Islamist group that commits warcrimws against both Yemenis and people thousands of miles away. Here’s just one example, executing men for gayness: https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/27/yemen-houthis-sentence-men-death-flogging https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/27/yemen-houthis-sentence-m... “In addition to death sentences that include crucifixion and stoning, the Houthi court sentenced 23 men to prison for periods of up to 10 years. Three of them were also sentenced to public flogging”
- jonplackett 5d agoSaudi Arabia who they’re fighting against by proxy, and who we sell lots of bombs to, and are soon going to help get nuclear technology, not so great either. https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/saudi-arabia/ https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/saudi-arab...
- spwa4 5d agoJust so it's clear that you're trying to cause confusion: these are light water reactors that cannot in any way shape or form be used to make bombs. Slightly harder to design and build. Much cheaper to run. Excellent for power. Bad for bombs. And, yes, just to get ahead of your next question: the US (and Europe and Russia and China) have offered to help Iran create these. Explaining it to them. Send people and engineers who have done it. Just get them from us. Or for free. We have tried everything. Iran has systematically refused everything, yet insist their program is for peaceful purposes only. I'm not saying Saudi Arabia is perfect, far from it. But they are not looking to destroy the world or the region, and yes, sorry to say, but Iran is.
- powellc 5d agoThe current theocracy in Iran was more or less created by the careless diplomacy and ignorance of post WWII American government officials. So let's be real careful about saying who's evil now. It's entirely possible that true evil cannot exist at a geo-political scale. Instead what we get are diplomatic evolutions which follow cyclical historical patterns of highs and lows which have haunted humans over the last 2 million years. Saying Iran is looking destroy the world as a final statement misses the fact that most Western oligarchs are passively OKAY destroying the world, if it means more money and "security" for them today.
- 737min 5d ago[flagged]
- jghn 5d agoWait until you compare Sharia law to laws proposed by evangelicals in the USA
- wuisce 5d ago*Religious law is bad everywhere. Sadly Halakha is becoming the norm in once liberal Israel.
- logicchains 5d agoNonsense, Halakha provides much stronger protections for how prisoners of war should be treated.
- bigyabai 4d agoHalakha is characteristically flawed like all other religious law. It can be interpreted in merciful denomenations, or cruel and internationally illegal ones.
- xinuc 5d ago[flagged]
- AnnikaL 5d agoMore than one thing can be bad at once. Opposing unprovoked wars and illegal West Bank settlements doesn't make theocratic law any less bad.
- bandofthehawk 5d agoSure, but the scale of violence committed by the US and allies is very large. Are there theocratic states recently committing similar levels of violence? Too often in the past, the oppression done by Middle Eastern governments is used to build political support for their destruction by the West.
- redsocksfan45 5d ago[dead]
- deleted 5d ago[deleted]
- shevy-java 5d agoWhy exactly is the USA engaged in warfare there? Didn't Trump claim he will end perpetual warfare - and now he is doing the opposite?
- bad_haircut72 5d agoTheres videos of American MRAP armored vehicles that they've captured starting to show up on Telegram/X etc now
- deleted 5d ago[deleted]
- burnt-resistor 5d agoAnd the Saudis asked the US to strike the Houthis because they don't trust the leadership of their own officers, but the US said "no". MbS is furious with the Trump crime family as a result. (While the Saudis have tons of US equipment but it's mostly a show force because they're unable to employ it effectively.)
- science4sail 5d agoI wonder why the US refused. Did MbS's check bounce or is Trump worried about another quagmire before the midterm elections? Will MbS place a phone call to Pakistan National Command if his oil shipments get distilled for too long?
- watwut 5d agoMaybe they should not bribe Trump in the first place. You give money to a crook to help him prior election, it is only fair for him to cheat on you.
- TitaRusell 5d agoChina has a base in Djibouti. Since our Burger overlords are failing their appointed tasks maybe it's time for Soy to rise.