🇸🇩⚔️🇸🇩 After days of fighting, the Sudanese army and its allies have advanced deep into Sodari and West Barah localities in an offensive launched to seize remaining RSF positions in North Kordofan State.

The military has also attacked areas west of the state capital, El-Obeid, capturing Al-Mamsuka, just west of Al-Ay’ara village, and west of RSF-held Abu Qa’ud; and Jebel Abu Sinun, which is located northwest of El-Obeid.

The army now fully controls five of the state’s eight localities: Jabra Al-Sheikh, Barah, Um Dam Haj Ahmed, Rahad and Um Ruwaba. It also holds most of El-Sheikan Locality, where El-Obeid is located, and the main road (known as Al-Sadarat or Al-Inqaz Al-Qarbi Highway) linking the city to the capital Khartoum region.

The latest offensive comes nearly two months after the mmilitary’s July offensive led to the capture of several towns along the road and subsequently reopened that road. It aims to push RSF fighters farther from the areas captured then, providing greater protection for El-Obeid and its supply routes from central Sudan.

In West Barah, army control now extends west from Al-Qa’ah toward Um Za’atr. In Sodari Locality, troops have reached Tna, a small but stratetic town located about 40 kilometers southeast of Sodari town.

The RSF still controls Sodari town, Umm Badr and Hamrat al-Sheikh. It also controls Abu Qa’ud and Umm Sumaima west of El-Obeid, as well as Kazgil to the south on the border with South Kordofan State, giving the rebel group a continued presence near the state capital.

🔗 Sudan Post

🇷🇺🗳 Putin’s party wins supermajority in tightly controlled parliamentary election

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party secured more than 58% of the vote in Russian elections, putting it on track to hold over three-quarters of the seats in the State Duma, the Russian parliament’s lower house.

The parliamentary election was the first since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the first to include residents of four Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia.

Yabloko, Russia’s only registered anti-war party, won no national seats after the Supreme Court removed it from the ballot last month. Russia’s Communist Party, which has been critical of the war, won 40 Duma seats.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸⛽️ U.S. president, Donald Trump, has called for a temporary diesel export ban to get the prices of fuel in the U.S. under control.

Japan, South Korea, The Philippines and many countries in Europe are reliant on U.S. diesel exports to replace Middle Eastern fuel.

This will force these countries to dump USTs to strengthen their currencies in order to better afford fuel which will have ripple effects on American yields.

@CIG_telegram

🇦🇺🇺🇸⛽️ Australia imports 18% of its diesel from the U.S.

🔗 https://www.ttnews.com/articles/west-coast-australia-diesel

🇺🇸⛽️ The U.S. is the world’s largest diesel fuel exporter accounting for 14.5% of the global supply for the fuel.

🔗 https://universaltrades.co/blog/top-10-diesel-exporting-countries-en/

🇺🇸🇬🇱🇩🇰 The details of the agreement between Denmark and the United States regarding Greenland

Significant expansion of U.S. military rights: modernization of Pituffik, new zones in Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, and the possibility of creating others.

Very broad freedom of movement: U.S. forces are authorized to move between defense zones, fly over and land in Greenland, and also have extended maritime and underwater rights.

Greenland becomes a central component of North American defense, notably through its explicit integration into the Golden Dome missile defense project.

Restrictions on external powers: permanent military installations by non-NATO countries are prohibited unless agreed upon, and there is enhanced oversight of foreign investment in sensitive sectors.

No transfer of sovereignty: Danish sovereignty and Greenland’s right to self-determination are reaffirmed. However, the agreement is open-ended and even provides for its continuation should Greenland become independent.

🔗 https://stm.dk/statsministeriet/publikationer/aftale-mellem-groenland-danmark-og-usa/

🇮🇱 April 2024 | ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza

The Israeli army has marked tens of thousands of Gazans as suspects for assassination, using an AI targeting system with little human oversight and a permissive policy for civilian collateral casualties

In 2021, a book titled ‘Human-Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human and Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionize Our World” was released in English under the pen name “Brigadier General Y.S.” In it, the author — a man who we confirmed to be the current commander of the elite Israeli intelligence unit 8200 — makes the case for designing a special machine that could rapidly process massive amounts of data to generate thousands of potential “targets” for military strikes in the heat of a war. Such technology, he writes, would resolve what he described as a “human bottleneck for both locating the new targets and decision-making to approve the targets.”
Such a machine, it turns out, actually exists.

A new investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals that the Israeli army has developed an artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender,” unveiled here for the first time. According to six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination, Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”

Formally, the Lavender system is designed to mark all suspected operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), including low-ranking ones, as potential bombing targets. The sources told +972 and Local Call that, during the first weeks of the war, the army almost completely relied on Lavender, which clocked as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants — and their homes — for possible air strikes.

During the early stages of the war, the army gave sweeping approval for officers to adopt Lavender’s kill lists, with no requirement to thoroughly check why the machine made those choices or to examine the raw intelligence data on which they were based. One source stated that human personnel often served only as a “rubber stamp” for the machine’s decisions, adding that, normally, they would personally devote only about “20 seconds” to each target before authorizing a bombing — just to make sure the Lavender-marked target is male. This was despite knowing that the system makes what are regarded as “errors” in approximately 10 percent of cases, and is known to occasionally mark individuals who have merely a loose connection to militant groups, or no connection at all.

Moreover, the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity. According to the sources, this was because, from what they regarded as an intelligence standpoint, it was easier to locate the individuals in their private houses. Additional automated systems, including one called “Where’s Daddy?” also revealed here for the first time, were used specifically to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family’s residences.

🔗 https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

🇺🇸⛽️🚢 Shipping diesel from the U.S. to Asia adds a $26 premium/barrel

Don’t get fooled by the fickle nature of the WTI paper oil price

The cost of shipping oil from the US to Asia has surged to ~25% of WTI futures, the largest on record and more than quadrupling since 2025.

Moving a cargo from Houston to Asia now adds ~$26 per barrel, or roughly $52 million per shipment, dramatically changing the economics of long-haul crude flows.

The surge is being driven by a severe shortage of available supertankers, with the US-Iran conflict stretching vessel availability as ships take longer routes and spend more time moving cargoes.

VLCCs on the Persian Gulf-China route are now earning a record $1.2 million per day, while Suezmax earnings have climbed above $300,000 per day.

Freight costs on US-Asia routes have roughly tripled in recent weeks, pushing refiners toward shorter-haul supplies and making some long-distance crude trades uneconomical.

The impact is also visible in physical markets, with Dated Brent rising above $131 per barrel even as Brent futures peaked near $110, as European buyers compete for nearby barrels.

🔗 Global Markets Investor

🇺🇸🛢 The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing to release a further 30 million bbls from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)

Crude from the Bryan Mound and Big Hill SPR facilities could soon be offered for loading in November and December, with earlier loading dates awarded to those making higher bids. It is not clear what the higher bids would entail, and DOE could choose not to make any awards.

🔗 https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2881256-us-gauges-interest-in-more-spr-crude-sources