🇺🇸 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 Rutte says NATO is planning for the possibility of two large-scale conflicts happening simultaneously: a Russian assault on Europe and a Chinese strike on Taiwan.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/news/6439069

📎 War Monitor

🇫🇷 🇺🇸 🇷🇺 Marine Le Pen on Russia-Ukraine war:

Either NATO enters this war and it will be the Third World War, or we will witness a Hundred Years’ War.

This war has already lasted longer than the First World War, and nobody is talking about it.

There are 2 million victims. This is a real slaughter. It is terrible.

📎 Clash Report

🇮🇹 🇺🇸 🇷🇺 Italian PM Meloni:

I believe these provocations from Moscow are multiplying because Putin needs to shift attention by creating an escalation with Europe.

This comes from a situation on the battlefield in Ukraine that is not going as Putin had predicted, declared and promised to his people.

I think we should not respond to these provocations. Responding to these provocations would be more in the interest of Moscow than of Europe.

📎 Clash Report

🇺🇸⚡️ — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said U.S. forces must prepare for future warfare extending beyond Earth, including around the moon.

Speaking at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference, Caine said the military must be prepared to “fight, endure and win in global contested environments from the seabed to cislunar space.”

🇪🇺🇨🇦 Plans for Canada to join the European Union as an “associate member” have been dismissed as meaningless by diplomats in Brussels.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, told Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, she wanted to open the door to the unprecedented, and as yet undefined, associate membership in a flagship speech in Strasbourg.

But the offer seemed to wrong-foot Mr Carney, who attended Ms Von der Leyen’s state of the union address.

He wants a “unique alliance” with the EU as Ottawa pivots to other partners because of the trade war triggered by Donald Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods.

But Mr Carney had never publicly asked for associate membership and stopped short of endorsing the plan when he addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday.

Surprised European diplomats also said they were unsure what being an “associate member” actually meant and the bloc’s capitals swiftly moved to reassert control.

“Member states know they are in the lead here. They know substance-wise it can be a trade deal-plus, as a maximum option,” one envoy told The Telegraph.

“Associate member is an empty phrase and member states will put substance into it, but it won’t be groundbreaking.”

One EU diplomat said “nobody really knows what it means”, adding there were concerns that the commission chief was “overpromising and wouldn’t be able to deliver”.

Another European diplomat called it an “unfortunate proposal, which has never been discussed with member states”.

But Ms Von der Leyen’s announcement – and overnight warnings from the US president that he could hit the EU with tariffs in retaliation for the “laughable” proposal – ensured it would be closely watched.

🔗 https://unwall.app/www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/09/17/canada-mark-carney-eu-offer-unravels/

🛢 J.P. Morgan in its latest report on the oil market, stated it no longer has a baseline view on which to model the evolution of the oil prices as the reality of permanent disruption is finally settling in for the traders who expected the 3rd Gulf War to be a short conflict with "minimal" disruptions to the global energy market.

@CIG_telegram

🇮🇱🇺🇸🇸🇦 Israel is expected to seek additional weapons systems from the U.S. after Washington informed Israel of plans to sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia in a reported $25 billion deal.

Israeli officials told Walla they would seek "compensation" from Washington, including access to advanced weapons systems, classified defense projects, Arrow 4 and Arrow 5 interceptor cooperation, space-based weapons, and other capabilities.

Source: Walla

🔗 Clash Report

🚜 Record US diesel prices squeeze farmers; food prices may rise

In northeast Missouri, Addie Yoder, a corn, soybean and cattle farmer, runs two combines, three semi-trucks and several tractors from mid-September to late October to harvest and transport her crops.

With diesel ​prices at record highs and just one combine requiring 300 gallons of the fuel, the best she can do is try to curb other expenses, she said.

In southeast South ‌Dakota, Drew Peterson, a soybean, corn and cattle farmer, expects to spend as much as $1,500 per day to fuel just one of his combines this season, double last year's costs, among the many machines he must use to bring in his crop.

"You can't just say, well, diesel is expensive, I'm not going to harvest," he said. "You've just got to make it work in your budget."

Across the U.S., farmers are confronting record-high diesel prices during the height of harvest season, further squeezing already ​thin margins. Price hikes seem inevitable at America's grocery stores ahead of November's midterm elections, where cost of living is expected to be a primary voter concern.

Global fuel supplies have been squeezed ​by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries. The average U.S. diesel price hit a new record this week, $6.29 per gallon, up 68% from $3.74 ⁠a year ago, according to Energy Information Administration data.

Farmers have access to off-road diesel, which is not subject to state and federal taxes. But even with the discount, many farmers are still paying significantly more for fuel than last year.

Wayne Gularte, who grows a variety of vegetables on roughly 600 acres near Gonzales, California, said his fuel costs have risen about 40%, from roughly $5 a gallon to $7 a gallon.

To save on costs, he has put some older gasoline-powered tractors from the 1950s back into service and parked one ​of the farm's diesel pickups. "The only money we can make is the money we save," Gularte said.

Farm fuel costs are up $11 per acre from last year for corn and $7 per acre for soybeans, according to ​Michael Langemeier, an economist at Purdue University.

Corn, soy and wheat futures all have rallied significantly since mid-August and hit multi-year highs in early September. Still, farmer margins remain thin compared to historical averages, said University of Illinois agricultural ‌economist Nick Paulson, ⁠who warned high fuel prices could raise costs next year for seed and fertilizer.

Many farmers have already tightened their belts, leaving little margin to accommodate fuel price increases, said Jon Paul Driver, a hay farmer near Spokane, Washington, and second vice president of the Washington Farm Bureau.

Though fuel accounts for a small share ​of the cost of food, consumers could still see prices rise as the supply chain absorbs higher fuel costs over the coming months, Ortega said.

Those ​effects could take time to ⁠play out because retailers may attempt to absorb short-term price increases, or because freight contracts locked in at lower prices do not yet reflect fuel surcharges, Ortega said.

He added that some of the items most vulnerable to price hikes are grocery essentials like produce, dairy and meat that require fuel-intensive refrigerated trucking.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/record-us-diesel-prices-squeeze-farmers-food-prices-may-rise-2026-09-18/

🇸🇾❌🇸🇦 Syria refuses Saudi Arabia's request to send Syrian fighters to Yemen

Saudi Arabia's recent months long efforts to recruit military personnel from abroad for Yemen did not result in an organized deployment of Syrian forces, as sources clarify that Damascus turned down a formal request from Riyadh to organize and dispatch fighters.

Syrian sources who spoke to Türkiye Today said Saudi Arabia had in recent months sought fighters to meet its military needs in Yemen, but that the Syrian government had "politely" rejected a request to organize and deploy a Syrian force against the Houthis.

"This issue has been exhausted and is over. The Saudi request was made several months ago. Syria politely turned it down, saying it was focused on its own military organization process and did not intend to enter a conflict as a third party," one of the sources said.

The source said the Syrian government was not preventing individuals from traveling outside Syria to participate in the conflict, but stressed that Damascus would not accept responsibility for such individual involvement.

Saudi Arabia is continuing to explore options for recruiting military personnel and instructors from different countries as it seeks to address its military needs in Yemen, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The search comes as fighting has intensified in Yemen and Iran-backed Houthi forces have taken control of key positions along the Red Sea coastline and near the entrance to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the sources said.

The sources said Saudi Arabia had been looking at personnel from several countries, with Pakistan among the countries where the recruitment effort had gained traction.

Unconfirmed reports also suggest that Saudi security authorities are continuing to look for personnel in North African countries, including Egypt and Libya.

The developments have also brought renewed attention to the Mecca pact, under which Türkiye, Pakistan and other participating countries are expected to coordinate on security and defense issues.

Sources familiar with the discussions said active defense cooperation could be considered once the pact has been incorporated into the domestic legal mechanisms of the participating countries.

📝: With the outbreak of the Sudanese Civil War, the KSA and the PLC in Yemen lost a lot of manpower as the thousands of Sudanese mercenaries which were brought to Yemen by the KSA and the UAE left to join the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Since then, the Saudis and the UAE have struggled to find fighters for the PLC as the PLC is significantly outnumbered by Ansarallah who controls most of Yemen's population centers.

The KSA has asked Turkey, Pakistan, the U.S. and China to help in the war with the Houthis, and they all refused. The PLC is viewed by the international community as a failed Saudi imperialist project and they would rather deal with the Houthis than a rump Yemeni state.

🔗 https://www.turkiyetoday.com/region/exclusivesyria-refuses-saudi-arabias-request-to-send-syrian-fighters-to-yemen-3228401?s=2