🇺🇸🇴🇲 Recently a post went viral on social media about an alleged "secret" dredging operation carried out by the U.S. Navy to open a "new corridor" for VLCCs to enter and exit the Persian Gulf safely.

The "corridor" is a narrow pass between Oman's Musandam peninsula and the small island of Jazirat.

The U.S. Navy allegedly dug in this waterway to make it safer for large ships like VLCCs to use. The social media claimed that this corridor would make travel to and from the oil terminals in the Persian Gulf "safe" and would negate Iran's fire control over the Strait of Hormuz, a claim that is false.

When zooming out, the corridor shortens the route that ships take by a few nautical miles and doesn't provide any cover as Iran could hit the ships well before they get close to the Jazirat island.

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🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦 For 53 hours uninterrupted, Kiev was under missile and drone attacks.

Air raid alarms sounded 25 times in the Ukrainian capital from August 26th to August 28th.

Among the targets hit by Russian Geran-4 drones and ballistic missiles are (claimed by the Russian MoD):

- The CHP-6 Combined Heat and Power Plant in Kyiv (2 strikes);
- A grain elevator;
- 5 logistics centres;
- A warehouse facility;
- A (claimed) technical maintenance and repair point for the Ukrainian military;
- 2 electrical substations;
- 2 warehouses reportedly storing drones;
- A petrol station.

From Ukrainian medias the following logistics centers were hit:

A warehouse belonging to the Chocolate Roshen company in Chubynskoe. Distribution centers for Comfy, Fora, Avrora and Budynok Ihrashok. A postal service Nova Poshta depot in Sviatopetrovskoe, struck twice.

UNICEF’s warehouse of aid for children and war-affected families in Chubynskoe, the second UNICEF warehouse destroyed in the Kiev region in two months.

Publishing stock burned too — A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA, Vivat, Osnovy, Readeat and others. One site lost more than 60,000 books.

At least 14 warehouses damaged across Kiev region.

On video are secondary explosions at an ammunition warehouse holding, most likely, artillery shells in Milaya, Kiev region, and a logistics unit housing rocket fuel for Ukraine's Flamingo FP5 missiles also in the Kiev region.

In the city of Kiev, 50 buildings were damage to varying degrees with 27 people dead.

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🇳🇪 Gunfire broke out in Niamey, the capital of Niger early this morning with rebelious units attempting to seize the Presidential Palace and the Niamey Airport.

This is the 3rd coup attempt since 2021, with the coup attempt in 2023 being successful in toppling the regime of Mohamed Bazoum with the Chief of the Palace Guards Abdourahamane Tiani naming himself president and still leads the country today.

As of the writing of this post the coup is still ongoing. The attack on the Presidential Palace was repelled by government forces but the Diori Hamane airport in Niamey and the Bassora training camp for the Nigerien National Guard are still under assault.

Nigerian medias report that units fighting the Islamic State in the Dosso region bordering Nigeria have abandoned their posts to take part in the coup, leaving behind a vacuum of power which will be quickly filled up by the jihadists.

The power grid has reportedly been cut off in certain areas and at strategic sites (notably the airport and the road leading to the presidential palace; to be confirmed).

The Nigerien state TV broadcast station came under attack but was repelled. Regular transmission resumed 2h ago and it was confirmed that there is a coup attempt going on with more Nigerien units mutinying and abandoning their posts along the Niger-Burkina Faso and Niger-Mali borders to join the rebellious units in Niamey.

Note for the map: the squares represent from left to right: the Nigerien presidential palace, the Bassora National Guard training camp and the Niamey Diori Hamani airport.

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🇮🇷🇺🇸🇮🇱 Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi:

Our intelligence shows major efforts to game energy markets. U.S. Govt elements use gullible media to influence prices for personal gain and keep POTUS mired in a losing war.

Israel-aligned actors also promote war with rosy assessments.

U.S. consumers feel the real bottom line.

Axios and more recently, Bloomberg, have reported on a "increase" of oil being shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, with Axios claiming as many as 16 million barrels/day while Bloomberg claimed 8 million barrels/day crossing the strait.

However, satellite imagery doesn't confirm any of the claims. To be able to meet Bloomberg's 8 million barrel/day figure, 4 VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carrier) with a capacity of 2 million barrels each, crossing the Strait of Hormuz every day. Problem is only a small number of the ships crossing the Hormuz are VLCCs with the majority being smaller crude carriers (coastal tankers, Afra and Suez-maxers) which can't carry more than 1 million barrels and they usually transport other petrochemical and petroleum products like naphta, ethylene, butene, heating oil, bitumen, asphalt, petroleum coke etc.

TankerTrackers which uses satellite imagery to count the ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz concluded that no more than 4 million barrels/day of crude oil passes through the Hormuz and a significant part of that is Iranian oil which is being blended with Iraqi oil in ship-to-ship transfers from sanctioned to unsanctioned tankers to evade the U.S. blockade.

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