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We were warned that a diesel shortage would be coming. According to the president of the United States, it is already here. That is really bad news, because so much of our economic infrastructure runs on diesel. Most of our trucks, most of our trains and most of our tractors use diesel. More than 70 percent of all commercial goods are transported by vehicles that are powered by diesel. As the price of diesel surges even deeper into record territory, just about everything else is going to become more expensive too. But the real crisis will come when we start to see widespread shortages and rationing all over the globe.

On Monday, we witnessed something that absolutely stunned me.

President Trump actually asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacking refineries in Russia…

U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop targeting Russian oil refineries, saying the attacks are “hurting the world” as fuel supply disruptions from the Ukraine and Iran wars propel U.S. diesel prices to a record high.

Ukraine has stepped up its strikes on Russian oil facilities and logistics infrastructure in recent months, seeking to raise the cost of the war for Moscow after more than 4½ years of conflict.

The attacks have significantly hampered Russia’s refining capacity and prompted widespread fuel shortages, with Moscow recently extending a ban on diesel exports through the end of September as part of a push to stabilize domestic supplies.

The Ukrainians have been attacking these refineries because they are trying to win the war.

But President Trump wants those attacks to come to an end because he believes that they are “causing a shortage of diesel”…

“Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump said during an official visit to Ireland on Sunday.

“Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel because he’s causing a shortage of diesel. This isn’t done by the Middle East; this is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine.”

There you go.

Even President Trump is admitting that “a shortage of diesel” is here.

Of course the war in the Middle East is having a huge impact on the global supply of diesel as well.

Normally, diesel accounts for approximately 30 percent of total oil refinery production in the region, and Joe DeLaura is telling us that we are facing a diesel supply crunch “because none of the Persian Gulf refineries can get product out”…

“We’re in a diesel supply crunch right now because none of the Persian Gulf refineries can get product out,” Rabobank senior energy strategist Joe DeLaura said, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal earlier this month. “Crude oil is just the input, but diesel is the everything the industrial economy runs on,” he also said. “Everything in agriculture, everything in construction, everything in mining. Also everything on the supply and distribution side runs on diesel.”

Thankfully, the world had large stockpiles of diesel coming into this year, but we have been chewing through that buffer at a staggering rate.

As a result, shortages are starting to appear.

For example, Reuters is reporting that palm oil harvests in Southeast Asia have been disrupted because there isn’t enough diesel fuel…

Palm oil harvests on Southeast Asia’s islands of Borneo and Sumatra are being disrupted ​as rising prices of fuel and supply shortages force smallholders to cut back on fruit collection, threatening yields of the ‌world’s most widely used edible oil.

Longer harvest disruptions could curb output in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia with an El Nino weather pattern expected to cut rain and dent yields after Malaysian benchmark palm futures have risen more than 15% this year.

The impact on harvesting has been worst in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak ​on Borneo, where unsubsidised diesel prices have surged almost 120%, while farmers on Indonesia’s Sumatra have been hit by fuel shortages, ​industry officials say.

The shortages are not widespread yet.

But that could quickly change in the months ahead.

One industry expert is warning that “Europe has a tremendous diesel problem” as we head toward the winter months…

“Europe has a tremendous diesel problem,” Eugene Lindell, head of refined products at consultancy FGE NexantECA, told Bloomberg. “It will get ugly in the sense that you will probably see extremely high flat prices.” These high prices will spread to everything from consumer goods to services and, according to FGE’s Lindell, translate into pressure on political circles.

Here in the United States, there have been a few gas stations that have temporarily run out of diesel, but that isn’t too significant.

For now, the primary way that this crisis is manifesting in this country is through much higher prices.

On Monday, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States hit an all-time record high of $6.23 a gallon…

The national average price of regular gas has risen more than 45% since the war with Iran started. The price of U.S. crude oil has soared more than 50% since the war started on Feb. 28.

On top of that, the price of diesel fuel continues to set new all-time highs. The national average price of diesel rose to $6.23 per gallon on Monday, AAA also reported.

A month ago, the national average was sitting at $5.42.

A year ago, the national average was just $3.69.

Of course the price of gasoline has been rising as well. Since March 1st, Americans have spent an extra 109 billion dollars on gasoline and diesel compared to the same period in 2025…

That is crazy.

Unfortunately, it appears that prices are going to continue to rise, and that is not good news for any of us.

Even if you do not use it in any of your vehicles, the rising price of diesel will have an impact on the cost of just about everything that you buy…

That commercial fuel, which is used in everything from trucking to boat transportation to trains, has become a particular focus for economists who say it could cause almost “everything” to cost more.

“The cost of diesel gets into just about everything,” KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk said in a recent interview with NBC News.

“From running a farm … [to the] cost of food, but also everything across the economy that’s shipped,” she said. When diesel prices rise, everything “gets that extra fee tacked onto it.”

Swonk predicted that the high cost of diesel will be an “inflationary problem” for months to come.

I am particularly concerned about what this crisis is going to mean for food prices.

Just about all of our farm equipment runs on diesel, and our farmers are getting financially hammered right now…

“Those prices hurt,” said Paul Mitchell, a professor of agricultural and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “And it’s not just the harvesting. It’s the hauling of everything, moving the grain or the silage from the field to the farm and then from the farm to wherever they’re selling it.”

Jason Kurtz, a corn and soybean farmer near Forest City, Missouri, said he was paying twice as much for diesel this year. His combine uses 200 gallons (760 liters) of fuel a day; he expected to run it for 30 days. He also needed diesel for a tractor and trucks.

“We have to harvest,” he said in an interview at his farm about 90 miles (145 kilometers) outside Kansas City on Tuesday. “We have to run the machines. We have to use the diesel, so it cuts into our bottom line.”

For those of us that live in the western world, substantially higher food prices will be inconvenient.

For those that live in deeply impoverished nations, substantially higher food prices could result in widespread famines.

We really are facing a “perfect storm” for global food production.

Multiple major wars are raging, farmers are dealing with a global fertilizer crisis, a Super El Niño has arrived in 2026, and now diesel prices are going absolutely nuts.

We have never witnessed anything quite like this, and there are no easy solutions.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

What is happening on the other side of the world is starting to have a very real impact on the daily lives of millions of Americans. The chaos in the Middle East and the rapidly escalating war in Ukraine are driving up oil prices. As a result, the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has never been so high this late in the calendar year, and the average price of diesel just keeps surging even deeper into record territory. Of course higher prices are only part of the story. Global supplies have gotten so tight, and so it was inevitable that shortages and rationing would begin to occur. Earlier today, I was shocked to learn that Costco is now rationing motor oil…

As The Drive originally reported, Costco has officially started rationing its motor oil to combat a rapidly deteriorating global lubricant shortage.

The days of grabbing cheap bulk oil are over. A 10-quart box of Kirkland Signature full-synthetic motor oil, which historically retailed for a bargain-basement $30, has skyrocketed to $58. More concerningly, Costco has implemented a strict two-box-per-customer weekly limit. Name brands aren’t faring much better; a six-quart case of Mobil 1 is currently sitting at $44, with purchases capped at five per member to prevent hoarders and scalpers from clearing the shelves.

I can’t remember Costco ever doing this before.

So why has this happened?

Well, it turns out that we normally import a very large percentage of our motor oil from the Middle East…

Modern synthetic motor oil relies heavily on Group III base oils. Historically, the United States imports nearly 44% of its Group III supply directly from three major Persian Gulf producers: Bapco in Bahrain, ADNOC in the United Arab Emirates, and Pearl GTL in Qatar.

The ongoing military entanglement with Iran and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have effectively choked off these crucial exports. To compound the supply chain disaster, the massive Pearl GTL facility in Qatar sustained heavy damage from Iranian airstrikes in March 2026, instantly crippling a major portion of global production for at least a year.

Unfortunately, it appears that the global energy crisis is about to get even worse.

On Friday, the Saudis announced that they had been forced to close down their East-West oil pipeline…

Saudi Arabia said Friday that it shut down the kingdom’s crucial East-West crude oil pipeline as a precautionary measure after multiple attacks by drones launched from Iraq.

The drones targeted the pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions Thursday morning causing fires and some damage, the Saudi government said. Several people were injured in the attacks, it said.

The Saudis have relied on the East-West pipeline to shift crude oil exports away from Persian Gulf as the U.S. and Iran battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz. The pipeline, which has a capacity of 7 million barrels per day, runs across the kingdom to export terminals on the Red Sea.

Global oil inventories are already incredibly tight.

So this is really big news.

It is being reported that up to 4 percent of the global supply of oil could be affected by this shutdown…

Saudi Arabia risks losing up to 4% of global oil supply unless it restarts its major east-west pipeline to the Red Sea within days, threatening a key export route that has helped the kingdom bypass the wartime shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported on Sunday.

Drone attacks forced Riyadh to shut the pipeline on Friday, cutting a route that had been carrying around 4 million barrels per day to the Red Sea port of Yanbu.

Yanbu has enough oil stocks to maintain exports for only five to seven days, three industry sources told Reuters, while smaller volumes are also stored at Egyptian ports.

Unfortunately, it appears that the refinery in Yanbu is now out of commission as well.

On Sunday, it was being reported that smoke was “billowing” from that facility…

A major oil refinery in Saudi Arabia has gone up in flames as tensions soar in the Middle East.

The Yanbu refinery in the city of Yanbu, on the Red Sea coast in western Saudi Arabia, has been pictured with smoke billowing above the facility.

Many believe that the Houthis were responsible for that attack, and we also just learned that a military base in southern Saudi Arabia has just been hit…

The Iranian-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen said early Sunday local time that it used drones and missiles to attack a military base in southern Saudi Arabia.

The attack at the Sharurah base targeted “weapons depots and command and control centers that are managing the aggression against our nation and people,” Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree wrote on X.

The Houthis are in all-out war mode.

As I detailed for my core supporters on Friday, the Houthis were able to capture more than 3,000 square kilometers of territory in Yemen in just 24 hours.

The Saudi-backed forces that are fighting the Houthis are collapsing, and Saudi leaders have been pleading with the Trump administration for help…

Saudi Arabia is urging Washington to take direct military action against Iran-backed Houthis, Fox News Digital learned after the terrorist group seized key positions along Yemen’s Bab al-Mandab Strait on Friday.

The dramatic strengthening of Houthi’s positioning along the coastline of Yemen is in one of the world’s most important shipping choke points — a narrow passage that links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, which has been used as a bypass as the Iran war continues to severely disrupt shipping, especially of oil, through the Strait of Hormuz.

The rapid advance on Friday triggered urgent discussions at the highest levels in Riyadh and Washington, and a source familiar with the matter tells Fox News Digital that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged President Donald Trump to take military action against the Houthis.

Of course the Trump administration already has their hands full with Iran.

Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is almost entirely paralyzed at this point, and there is no end in sight for the war.

Ominously, we are being told that there is solid evidence that entities in China “supplied Iran with high-quality satellite imagery of a US Air Force base in Jordan”  just prior to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on July 17th…

Chinese entities supplied Iran with high-quality satellite imagery of a US Air Force base in Jordan both before and after Tehran launched a deadly ballistic missile attack on the facility on July 17, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday, citing US officials familiar with the matter.

The officials, who declined to identify the Chinese entities, said Washington had linked the satellite imagery to the strike, providing what they described as the clearest evidence yet that Chinese support for Tehran during the war had contributed to the deaths of US troops. They stopped short, however, of accusing Beijing of directly participating in the attack, according to the Journal.

Senior US officials reportedly brought up the imagery from the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base with their Chinese counterparts, but Beijing rejected the allegation and demanded that Washington provide evidence, the Journal cited its sources as saying.

This is an extremely alarming development, because now it is very clear that China is helping Iran fight us.

That puts us dangerously close to the sort of military conflict with China that I have been warning about for years.

Sadly, we are also dangerously close to a directly military conflict with Russia.

A little while ago, a Russian drone hit a train that was just minutes behind a train that was carrying Boris Johnson, former Swedish premier Carl Bildt and other prominent western leaders…

BORIS Johnson has blasted “warped” Vladimir Putin after he escaped across the Polish border when a Russian drone struck a train minutes behind his.

The former Prime Minister, who is understood to be unharmed, was travelling back from a security conference in Kyiv.

Former Swedish premier and foreign minister Carl Bildt, who was on the same train as Johnson, said their train was “just minutes” behind the one hit by a Russian drone.

“This wasn’t our train [that was hit], but the one just minutes after us by the [Polish] border crossing,” said Bildt.

German Chancellor Merz’s primary security adviser and security advisers from the UK, France, and Italy were on the train as well.

Also riding the train was former CIA director David Petraeus…

Ukraine’s state railway operator says top Western figures — including former prime minister Boris Johnson and ex-CIA director David Petraeus — were at a west Ukrainian train station shortly before Russia struck a Warsaw-bound train there.

“Shortly before the locomotive was hit at the Ukrainian-Polish border, a diplomatic train was at Yagodyn station,” Ukraine’s rail operator Ukrzaliznytsia says in a statement.

“There were, among others, security advisers from several EU member states and former European leaders on board, including former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. In another train that was at Yagodyn station at the very moment of the attack was former CIA Director David Petraeus.”

Can you imagine what would have happened if the Russians had struck that train instead of the train behind it?

Footage of the train that the Russians did hit shows that it was severely damaged.

So it looks like we dodged a bullet.

But we continue to creep even closer to a nightmare scenario in Europe.

Many of our NATO allies have been preparing for war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin just warned that if any European nations send troops to Ukraine it will mean “war with Russia”…

President Vladimir Putin warned Europe on Friday that sending any troops to help Ukraine would mean an escalation of the conflict and “war with Russia.”

UPI reports Putin laid out his stark warning while speaking to reporters at the BRICS summit in New Delhi.

“Now, they say they are thinking of how to deploy troops to Ukraine,” he told reporters, as quoted by state-run news agency TASS as seen by UPI. “This would mean a war with Russia.”

All of the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place, but a lot of people out there still don’t realize that what we are witnessing is literally World War III.

For quite a while, many of us that live here in the United States could safely ignore the drama on the other side of the planet because it was not significantly affecting our daily lives.

But now it is.

If you go to Costco today, there will be a strict limit on how much motor oil that you can purchase.

Of course this is just the beginning.

Global events are starting to spiral completely out of control, and a tremendous amount of chaos is on the horizon.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

We just witnessed one of the biggest military developments in the Middle East in months. It is being reported that a major ground offensive by the Houthis has enabled them to take control of the port city of Mocha right on the coast of the Red Sea, Zuqar Island and the rest of the Hanish island chain, and Mayun Island which is located in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the south entrance into the Red Sea. This is being called a “strategic disaster” for the United States and Saudi Arabia, because it will give the Houthis an iron grip on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Needless to say, investors were spooked by this news. Yesterday we were talking about how Brent crude had suddenly risen to $100 a barrel, but today it shot up to $107 a barrel. West Texas crude is up to $102 a barrel, and that is really freaking people out. Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for this crisis.

So much has changed within the past 24 hours.

The Houthis have successfully captured the most important Yemeni port city on the coast of the Red Sea…

Iran-aligned Houthi forces took control of the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mocha, less than 50 miles from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, after government forces retreated from the area overnight, despite making advances in Yemen’s desert interior. This comes despite Saudi-backed Yemeni forces announcing Wednesday that they had made significant gains in the north and central desert areas and appeared to have broken through Houthi lines.

In reality, the Houthis had simply repositioned, giving up open desert territory in order to seize the more strategically valuable western coastline. By Thursday morning, the group had taken Mocha after government forces retreated en masse, effectively swapping territory with Saudi-backed forces in a trade that leaves the Houthis with a more direct ability to threaten shipping in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and increase pressure on Saudi Arabia.

This was a brilliant strategic move by the Houthis.

One former Yemeni official is claiming that outside intervention would be required to turn things around at this point…

A former Yemeni military official told i24NEWS that the government’s boasting about desert gains was “actually a cover for their losses on the coastline.” “It’s really bad,” he said, adding that the only way to turn the tide is for Saudi Arabia to get more involved and activate the Mecca Accord, bringing Turkey and Pakistan into the fight.

In addition to conquering Mocha, the Houthis also took control of a number of strategically important islands located in the southern portion of the Red Sea…

Two military sources in the Yemeni government told Reuters that the Houthis have reached the Hanish Islands in the Red Sea, and AFP reported they seized Zuqar Island. Additionally, local sources confirmed to the Qatari Al-Araby channel that the Houthis took control of the strategic island of Mayun in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Up to now, the Houthis have been lobbing missiles at Saudi tankers from a long distance.

That has been effective, but controlling these islands will allow them to fire at Saudi tankers from very close range.

That is why this is being called a “strategic disaster” for the United States and Saudi Arabia…

Seizure of the coast and some of the islands in the sea would be a strategic disaster for Saudi Arabia and the US, taking Iran and its proxies closer to full control of two choke points for western shipping on opposite sides of the Arabian peninsula: the Bab al-Mandab at the southern end of the Red Sea and the strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

Observers have said a reduction in hostilities – the most intense since the UN-sponsored ceasefire of April 2022 put an end to major military exchanges – now seems unlikely in what is seen as an attempt by the Houthis to open a second front in the Iran-US war, alongside the battle for control of Hormuz.

Commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has been almost completely choked off.

Now the Houthis are in position to strangle commercial traffic through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait as well…

It is one of the world’s most important routes for crude oil and fuel from the Gulf bound for the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal, or the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, as well as commodities bound for Asia, including Russian oil.

Blocking the narrow passage would isolate Gulf oil-producing countries, such as energy superpower Saudi Arabia, from their main shipping routes, after Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — the primary maritime energy artery between Asia and Europe.

The war in the Middle East just got a lot more serious, and on Thursday the price of oil really spiked…

U.S. crude oil prices surged past $100 per barrel on Thursday, the highest level in more than three months as fighting has sharply escalated between Washington and Tehran this week.

West Texas Intermediate futures gained 6.7% to close at $102.48 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, last traded about 6% higher to $107.21 per barrel.

Oil prices have advanced more than 18% in September as the market braces for a prolonged war in the Middle East.

If we don’t witness some sort of a diplomatic miracle, things could get a lot worse.

Goldman Sachs is warning that the price of oil could potentially hit $120 a barrel, and Bank of America is claiming that it could actually reach $150 a barrel in a worst case scenario…

Then there’s Goldman Sachs, which raised its 2027 forecast to $80, while also flagging a worst-case scenario of $120 oil where Gulf output remains suppressed.

Not to be outdone, Bank of America said continued Middle East conflict could put oil in a $95-to-$120 range, with $150 a possibility if energy infrastructure is damaged further.

We are in far more trouble than most people realize.

The Iranians truly believe that they now have the upper hand, and they are openly mocking us…

Over the past couple of months, the Iranians have been responding to our attacks.

But now the IRGC is warning that Iran is “on the threshold of offensive operations”…

The top Revolutionary Guards commander in Tehran said Iran had moved beyond defensive operations and was now “on the threshold of offensive operations.”

“This is a turning point whose effects the enemies will soon understand,” Hassan Hassanzadeh said.

What kind of “offensive operations” do they have in mind?

We are also being told that Iran has been steadily producing new weapons and that we will soon “see a glimpse of the tip of this iceberg”…

Iran’s defense industry remains operational and has become “stronger, smarter and more advanced than before,” the Defense Ministry said on Thursday, rejecting suggestions that the sector could be destroyed.

“You will soon see a glimpse of the tip of this iceberg,” the ministry added, without providing details.

I do believe that the Iranians have some surprises up their sleeves.

But so does Israel.

I am expecting to see some major escalations.

Of course that would be really bad news for the global economy.

The price of oil has smashed through the psychologically important $100 barrier, and if it keeps going higher it is inevitable that we will witness an enormous wave of panic in the financial markets.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

For decades, foreign policy experts warned about what would happen if someone decided to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Now we are living that reality. The price of Brent crude just smashed through the $100 barrier after fighting between the U.S. and Iran erupted once again last night. Gasoline and diesel are going to become even more expensive, and that is not good news for our economy at all. But that isn’t the big story. The panic that is starting to spread through global financial markets is not the big story either. The big story is that the war with Iran is dangerously close to spiraling completely and utterly out of control. If that actually happens, we really will be facing an apocalyptic scenario.

As I discussed yesterday, great efforts have been made to keep the price of oil under $100 during this war.

Unfortunately, those efforts have failed…

Oil prices climbed above $100 a barrel Wednesday for the first time in nearly six weeks as escalating attacks on tankers and energy facilities in the Middle East raised fears of further disruptions to global supplies.

Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose above $100 a barrel in early trading, while the U.S. benchmark climbed above $95.

When the price of oil rises above $100 a barrel, it acts as a psychological trigger and global investors start to become very nervous.

The reason why the price of oil is spiking is because more fighting suddenly flared up last night.

The U.S. attacked and destroyed five oil tankers that belonged to Iran…

U.S. military forces destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers Sept. 8, officials said, the latest in an escalating round of exchanges between the United States and Iran.

The strikes targeted five tankers linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to U.S. Central Command, the arm of the military overseeing operations in the Middle East. Central Command shared footage of the strikes showing the aft, or rear, part of the massive non-military vessels.

Central Command footage of the strikes shows missiles hitting the ships and leaving them in flames. Four of the tankers were located in the Gulf of Oman. The other tanker was in the Persian Gulf near Kharg Island, a well-known Iranian oil depot President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to attack.

U.S. Central Command has specifically identified all five of the oil tankers for us, and we are being told that they were targeted “because of their role in helping move Iranian oil out of the region”…

The tankers U.S. forces targeted were M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1 and M/T Riesco, located in the Gulf of Oman, and M/T Derya, located near Kharg Island, military officials said.

According to Central Command, the vessels were targeted because of their role in helping move Iranian oil out of the region.

It was inevitable that the Iranians would respond.

Shortly after the U.S. attacks, Iran launched missiles at 10 ships…

Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.

Two of the ships that Iran targeted were U.S. warships, and eight of them were commercial vessels.

In addition, Iran also fired a number of missiles at U.S. facilities in Jordan.

The Iranians claim that they successfully hit two U.S. Navy destroyers, but U.S. Central Command is strongly denying this…

It does appear that there were direct hits in Jordan, but the Pentagon is telling us that all U.S. personnel “are accounted for”…

After a huge Iranian ballistic missile launch on US bases in Jordan overnight, CENTCOM has yet to respond in any major way. The Pentagon has also said all US troops “are accounted for” – but this doesn’t necessarily mean there were no casualties.

Hopefully we will get more clarity about potential casualties in the hours ahead.

It is being reported that the Iranians are starting to use “electro-optical missiles” in some instances.

Electro-optical missiles achieve high precision by tracking and striking targets using built-in cameras and light sensors.

So where did Iran get such technology?

Well, there is speculation that the Iranians may be getting help from Russia or China…

The new missiles suggest Tehran may still be receiving assistance from Russia or China to track the location of US warships, experts have warned.

In April, intelligence reports found that Chinese and Russian satellites were secretly providing the Islamic Republic with critical imagery to target US military bases.

Russia has long exchanged weapons with Iran and provided drone expertise during the war.

In May, the US sanctioned China-based entities for providing satellite imagery to Iran during the war. Two months later, it was revealed that China was sending 400 rocket launchers to Iran in a new deal, underscoring their increased military ties.

If it is confirmed that either Russia or China is assisting the Iranians with their missile program, that would be a deeply troubling development.

I think that the Trump administration was hoping that striking Iranian tankers would cause the Iranians to stop attacking commercial vessels, but that isn’t going to happen.

In fact, the IRGC is warning that “if the enemy hits two or three of our targets, we will respond firmly with 20 targets”…

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that it will hit 20 targets for every two or three U.S. strikes, while outlining the country’s conditions for ending the war.

“If the enemy wants an end to this situation, it must, while completely stopping the war, refrain from making threats again, the army of the Zionist regime must withdraw from Lebanon, the blockade of Yemen must end, $24 billion of Iran’s frozen assets must be released, and it must refrain from any interference in the country’s nuclear and missile capabilities,” said IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebi, according to pro-regime Iranian outlet Akharin Khabar.

“We even have the capability to hit targets at this distance of 400 kilometers (250 miles), and some time ago, we targeted an American aircraft carrier at a distance of 500 kilometers (310 miles),” Mohebi claimed, adding that Iran has “reached a point where if the enemy hits two or three of our targets, we will respond firmly with 20 targets.”

The Iranians want to make the response to any military action so painful that President Trump will be forced to back off.

But that isn’t going to happen either.

If both sides just continue to escalate matters, the entire region could erupt in flames.

Perhaps that is inevitable.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once again boldly proclaimed that the end of the regime in Iran is very near…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said victory over Iran is “very close,” declaring on the eve of Rosh Hashanah that bringing down Tehran’s regime remains the country’s “main task.”

“The main task is to defeat the terrorist regime in Iran. We are very close to it,” Netanyahu said in a video message posted to X during a visit to Mount Hermon in Syria. “We know that the entire axis will ultimately fall. We are committed to doing this, and we will do it.”

Netanyahu visited the area alongside Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Tamir Yadai, receiving a briefing on Israeli military operations in the region.

Netanyahu has said this several times now.

To me, it does not appear that the fall of the Iranian regime is close.

So I would love to learn what he knows that I do not.

Needless to say, the regime in Tehran will not go peacefully.

If what Netanyahu is claiming is accurate, that would seem to indicate that the war in the Middle East is not even close to over.

That means that the global energy crunch is going to get a whole lot worse.

Right now, the Chinese are driving up prices for physical oil as they seek to replace the oil that they normally import from Iran…

China, the world’s largest oil importer, is bidding up crude prices across Africa, Canada, and Latin American markets as disruptions in the Hormuz chokepoint and limited Iranian supplies intensify competition for alternatives. The scramble is squeezing smaller Chinese refineries that once relied on heavily discounted Iranian barrels, according to a new Bloomberg report.

The renewed Chinese buying marks a major shift from a period when subdued Chinese buying helped restrain crude oil prices. With Iranian exports almost entirely shut off by the US blockade and fighting flaring again, as seen Monday when Saudi Aramco’s Jizan oil facilities were reportedly hit, the race to find replacement supplies around the world is becoming an increasingly expensive task for the Chinese.

Pretty soon, there will be a mad scramble as nations all over the globe attempt to secure sufficient energy supplies.

Inventories are getting extremely tight, and we are feeling the pain here in the United States too.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has never been this high so late in the calendar year, and the average price of a gallon of diesel just reached yet another new record high…

While gas prices often lag oil prices, they also ticked higher this week after reaching a record Labor Day weekend high. As of Sept. 9, the national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline is $4.22, up from $4.01 last month and from $3.19 this time last year, according to AAA.

The jumps come days after average U.S. diesel prices reached record highs. On Sept. 9, diesel continued to set records, jumping to an all-time high of $5.92 per gallon, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.

Gas prices have surged 42% since the start of the war on Feb. 28, prompting pain at the pump for some American consumers. The University of Michigan’s measure of consumer sentiment and The Conference Board’s measure of consumer confidence fell in August, as survey respondents cited high gas prices.

If prices continue to rise, it will have a dramatic impact on economic activity.

Meanwhile, global investors will get really spooked if the price of oil stays above $100 a barrel for an extended period of time.

But there is no easy way out now.

Even if the U.S. were to completely pull out of the Middle East, it would be just a matter of time before Iran and Israel started going at it again.

Decades of tension in the Middle East have been building up to this moment.

Now a terrifying war is playing out right in front of our eyes, and there is no end in sight.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

The global energy supply crunch is only going to get worse as long as the conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe are raging. A lot less oil is getting through the Strait of Hormuz than normal, and diesel production in Russia has been significantly diminished by relentless Ukrainian drone strikes. As a result, we have a facing an unprecedented energy squeeze. The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has never been this high so late in the calendar year, and the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States just set yet another all-time record.

At this stage, nobody can deny that a global energy crisis is here.

In fact, Goldman Sachs just warned that the price of oil could soon jump above $120 a barrel…

Goldman Sachs is warning that heightened attacks in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea could push global oil prices above $120 a barrel, which would add to the surging fuel costs Americans have faced during the Iran war.

The investment bank’s forecast implies a roughly 20% increase in the cost of Brent crude, the international benchmark, which is trading at nearly $100 a barrel.

For months, there have been extraordinary efforts to keep the price of oil below the psychologically important $100 a barrel mark.

But authorities will not be able to hold that line for much longer.

Already, U.S. consumers have spent an extra $100 billion on fuel since fighting with Iran erupted in February…

American consumers spent an additional $100 billion on fuel between the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28 and Sept. 8, according to a tracker from Brown University. Higher gasoline prices accounted for about $55 billion of that amount, while diesel accounted for the remaining $45 billion.

Unfortunately, fuel prices just continue to rise.

On Labor Day, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States reached another brand new record high…

Diesel, which is widely used in the trucking, construction, agriculture and rail sectors, reached a record $5.90 a gallon on Labor Day, AAA data shows.

It is over six dollars a gallon where I live.

In some parts of California, it is now over eight dollars a gallon.

And industry executives are telling us that global supplies of diesel will continue to be very tight for the foreseeable future…

Global diesel supply will remain tight due to a lack of spare refining capacity, Russia’s ban ​on exports and the approach of peak winter demand, senior industry ‌executives said on Tuesday.

The wars in Ukraine and Iran have impacted refineries in Russia and the Middle East, pushing diesel margins to record levels in Europe and the U.S., while reducing crude ​supplies to Asia.

“There’s really a shortage of products because we’re missing 2 ​million barrels a day from Russia, and we’re missing nearly 2 million ⁠barrels a day from the Middle East,” Vitol CEO Russell Hardy told the ​APPEC conference on Tuesday.

If things are this bad now, what will they look like a few months from now if World War 3 continues to intensify?

On Tuesday, oil spiked after the Houthis launched a barrage of missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia…

Oil prices rose Tuesday after Iran-allied militants in Yemen attacked several energy facilities in Saudi Arabia, forcing a temporary halt to some operations.

Brent crude futures rose 1% to $97.99 a barrel by 11:28 a.m. E.T. The international benchmark hit a session high of $99.46 earlier. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures advanced 1.55% to $92.90 per barrel.

Oil prices are up more than 8% in September as the U.S. and Iran have traded military strikes for the first time since July.

We are only a little over a week into this month, and the price of oil is already up about 8 percent.

That is not a good sign at all.

The Houthis know how to hit Saudi Arabia where it hurts.

Multiple Aramco facilities were targeted, and it is being reported that fires caused “temporary shutdowns” at several of them…

Houthi militants targeted civilian and economic assets in the cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait, Jazan and Najran, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said. More than 70 civilians were injured in the attacks, it said.

The attacks caused fires at several energy facilities resulting in temporary shutdowns, the kingdom’s Energy Ministry said in a statement. Emergency services are working to contain fires at the sites and assess the extent of damage, the world’s largest oil exporter added.

Riyadh did not disclose what type of energy facilities were struck. Houthi state media said the group attacked Saudi Aramco facilities in southern areas with drones and ballistic missiles.

In addition to launching missiles and drones at the Saudis, the Houthis have also begun a major ground offensive in the direction of the Bab al-Mandab Strait…

The Houthis launched a broad offensive along frontlines on the western Red Sea coast in a bid to advance towards the Bab al-Mandab Strait, experts say.

The waterway forms the southern entrance to the Red Sea, a shipping artery that has become vital for Saudi oil exports during Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the U.S.-Iran war.

Meanwhile, the recent fighting between the U.S. and Iran threatens to greatly escalate.

Over the weekend, the U.S. severely damaged three Iranian oil tankers…

The United States struck three Iranian oil tankers on Saturday, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has confirmed, which it said were involved in covert oil shipment near the critical Kharg Island terminal.

Only one of the vessels was near Kharg Island. In addition to one vessel “permanently disabled” off the coast of Kharg, Centcom said it had “completely destroyed” another oil carrier near the port city of Jask, while rendering another “inoperable” in the Gulf of Oman “after the crew was directed to abandon ship.”

Exports of Iranian oil have essentially dropped to zero, and the Iranian economy is being strangled to death by the U.S. naval blockade.

Authorities in Iran are deeply frustrated, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is pledging that the U.S. will soon be “brought to complete regret”…

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed continued resistance against the U.S. on Tuesday, writing on X that the U.S. will “regret” the war.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always opposed war and has considered the preservation of the people’s interests and regional security to lie in refraining from igniting conflict,” Pezeshkian wrote.

“However, just as it has boldly risen to defend against aggression up to this day, it will continue this resistance with full strength until the aggressors are brought to complete regret and will remain the guardian of the rights of the great Iranian nation,” he added.

Many consider such threats to be quite empty.

But the Iranians do appear to have freshly upgraded ballistic missiles, and they are threatening to use them to conduct preemptive strikes…

Iran has issued a fresh threat to the US over its newly upgraded ballistic missile, with officials warning that the nation “will take action against any threat, even before it is carried out.”

The report by Iran’s state news agency on Monday highlighted comments broadcast on state television the previous day by the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Mohsen Rezaei.

He praised the country’s expanded arsenal and claimed a new missile had been “tested” against a US warship. However, it was unconfirmed whether the test involved the solid-fueled Qassem Basir featured in the new report.

There is speculation that Iran’s freshly upgraded ballistic missiles could potentially be a serious threat to our warships.

Needless to say, the sinking of even a single U.S. warship would change everything.

But President Trump continues to be optimistic.

On Monday, he assured us that the price of oil will quickly fall below two dollars a gallon “when we WIN the war with Iran”…

President Trump on Monday said oil prices “will drop precipitously” after the Iran war is won, as Iran seeks to maintain its control of the Strait of Hormuz with a “restricted zone.”

“Oil prices will drop precipitously, like everything else is dropping (but more!), when we WIN the war with Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Three Dollars a gallon, but ultimately, below Two Dollars a gallon. It will all happen quickly, and Iran will never have a Nuclear Weapon.”

In Ukraine, the Russians have resumed hitting Ukrainian cities with a vengeance…

At least five people were killed in Kyiv after Russia launched what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “complex” attack on the city, with Moscow resuming long-range strikes on the Ukrainian capital following a three-day pause to allow the visit of a U.S. peace talks delegation.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 166 drones, 32 cruise missiles and an unspecified number of anti-ship and ballistic missiles into the country overnight. The air force said its forces downed 142 drones, 31 cruise missiles and two ballistic missiles.

The Russians are hoping that greatly escalating the intensity of strikes will convince the Ukrainians to stop hitting their refineries.

It isn’t going to work.

But sides are just going to continue to pummel one another, and that isn’t going to be good news for any of us.

In addition to repeatedly targeting Kyiv, the Russians also hit the city of Odessa really hard…

Kyiv and the southern port city of Odessa were the main targets, the air force reported. Missiles and drones impacted across 29 locations, it added in a post to Telegram.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a post to Telegram that the “massive strike” targeted defense industrial facilities and military transport and logistical hubs, plus port facilities in Odesa. The ministry also posted a graphic showing what appeared to be cruise missiles, with the caption, “Targeting day and night.”

Unless the war between Russia and Ukraine ends, the diesel supply crunch will continue to escalate.

And as long as traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is only a fraction of what it was before the war with Iran, there will be upward pressure on the price of oil.

The higher energy prices go, the worse things will get for the entire global economy.

The clouds on the horizon are getting really dark, and at this point everyone can see that a major storm is rapidly approaching.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

Three very dangerous hurricanes are churning in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Anak Krakatau has violently erupted. The cataclysmic 1883 eruption of the original Krakatau volcano was one of the loudest and most powerful volcanic eruptions ever recorded, and it significantly reduced global temperatures for an extended period of time. So when Anak Krakatau starts to cause chaos, everyone should be paying attention. Of course here in the United States people are much more concerned about the three enormous hurricanes that are looming dangerously close to U.S. territory.

On Monday morning, Accuweather was telling us that Hurricane Lowell would “come within 100 miles of the western islands of Hawaii”…

Following a path similar to Hurricane Iniki from September 1992, Lowell is forecast by AccuWeather meteorologists to make a right turn and come within 100 miles of the western islands of Hawaii.

As of Monday morning HST, Hurricane Lowell was a Category 3 hurricane moving northeast at 14 mph and was located about 405 miles southwest of Honolulu.

Hawaii Gov. Josh Green declared a state of emergency last Thursday due to the impending impacts for the islands.

That would have been bad enough.

But now CNN is reporting that the forecast has changed and now Hurricane Lowell is expected to “pass about 75 miles west of the more populous Kauai as a Category 2 storm Monday night through Tuesday morning”…

Lowell is a Category 3 hurricane as of early Monday morning, local time, with winds of 115 mph, traveling north-northeast at 14 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Its outer rainbands were hitting as far east as Oahu — where a tropical storm watch is in effect — but all of the islands will be soaked as the storm approaches throughout the day.

And it’s expected to get closer than previously thought. The hurricane’s forecast track has shifted about 75 miles east and closer to Kauai and Niihau since Sunday morning. Lowell’s center is now forecast to make its closest pass about 75 miles west of the more populous Kauai as a Category 2 storm Monday night through Tuesday morning.

Residents of Hawaii certainly don’t want to hear that Lowell will “get closer than previously thought”.

So what if Lowell keeps drifting in that direction and ends up making a direct hit on the Hawaiian islands?

That could be catastrophic.

At this moment, panic buying has erupted on Kauai as Hurricane Lowell approaches.

At Home Depot, supplies of plywood and propane are rapidly disappearing…

Shoppers on Kauai have rushed to stock up, leaving empty shelves, dwindling supplies of plywood and no propane at one Home Depot, while long lines formed at Costco and gas pumps.

Greg, an Oahu resident who is visiting his family on Kauai, told local KITV: ‘I think it looks like everybody gathered those items already. Everybody is out. Just making sure that all those items are gathered and whatnot.’

This sort of thing always seems to happen whenever a major disaster is looming.

One local resident said that Costco “was just flooded with people”…

Kiare Reis-Torres, a Kauai resident, told KITV: ‘I’ve never experienced this, but I know that when I went to Big Save yesterday, most of the shelves were empty.

‘And then I saw that Costco was just flooded with people. Everybody’s just trying to grab their supplies.’

Meanwhile, another extremely large hurricane has been sending monster waves into the Southern California coastline…

Hurricane Marie is impacting the Southern California coastline with powerful swells and dangerous rip currents triggering flooding, water rescues, and a frantic effort to keep ocean water away from homes.

The storm, churning in the eastern Pacific off the coast of Baja California, is not expected to make landfall in the Golden State — but it is already hitting beaches spanning Los Angeles County to Orange County.

At Seal Beach on Saturday, ocean water surged into parking lots near the pier, flooding low-lying areas and trapping vehicles.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

But it is.

In Long Beach, gigantic waves caused by Hurricane Marie have transformed “scenic waterfront streets into treacherous, waterlogged disaster zones”…

Among the hardest-hit areas is the low-lying city of Long Beach, where massive ocean surges have turned scenic waterfront streets into treacherous, waterlogged disaster zones.

Dramatic videos circulating online show towering waves crashing directly over concrete barricades and swamping public beach paths. Waters breached low-lying properties on the Peninsula, inundating coastal homes and parking lots.

The footage of these waves that is being shared on social media is absolutely shocking.

Authorities rushed to build an emergency sand berm, but it was no match for the colossal waves that kept relentlessly rushing in…

In anticipation of the high surf, municipal crews worked tirelessly with heavy machinery to construct a massive emergency sand berm along the shoreline. However, the relentless force of the tide quickly overtopped and breached the barrier, allowing saltwater to pour into residential neighborhoods.

Describing the frightening scene, local Peninsula residents expressed helplessness as ocean water rushed toward their doorsteps.

“The water just kept coming over the top of the berm,” noted one long-time resident watching municipal pumps work furiously to clear the street. “No matter how high they built it, the ocean was just too big.”

Hurricane Marie is not anywhere close to shore, but it is still inflicting quite a bit of pain.

In fact, the Metrolink Pacific Surfliner railroad in San Clemente had to be shut down for repairs because swells from Hurricane Marie had caused so much damage.

Monster swells from Hurricane Marie forced emergency repairs on Southern California’s scenic railroad route on Sunday.

A portion of the Metrolink Pacific Surfliner railroad in San Clemente is undergoing repairs, forcing service suspensions across parts of Orange County through Labor Day Monday.

A third major storm, Hurricane Karina, is not currently expected to be a serious threat but meteorologists continue to monitor it.

On the other side of the world, a massive eruption of Anak Krakatau that lasted for 25 hours forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights at Jakarta’s main international airport…

Ash from the eruption of Indonesia’s Mount Anak Krakatau wreaked havoc for aviation around the region over the weekend.

The volcanic eruption disrupted hundreds of flights at Jakarta’s main international airport, the second-busiest in Southeast Asia, with cancellations extending into Monday.

The volcano began a period of continuous eruption at 11:07 p.m. local time on Friday, according to a CNBC translation of a press release from Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. The continuous eruption lasted about 25 hours before ending at 12:04 a.m. on Sunday.

This was a very large eruption of a very dangerous volcano.

As of a few hours ago, a total of seven airports in Indonesia were still closed…

Seven Indonesian airports – including two serving Jakarta – remained closed on Monday ⁠morning because of volcanic ash from eruptions at Mount ⁠Anak Krakatau, the transport minister ⁠said.

Ash from ​Anak Krakatau, which sits halfway between Java and Sumatra islands, has blanketed Jakarta and several surrounding areas since it erupted ⁠late on Friday, leading to the closure of the airports for safety reasons.

The transport ministry said 170,000 people have been affected by flight ⁠cancellations.

Unfortunately, Anak Krakatau is not the only volcano in Indonesia that is rumbling right now.

At this stage, there are six different volcanoes in the country that are “at the second-highest alert status”…

Six active volcanoes in Indonesia are currently at the second-highest alert status, including Mount Anak Krakatau, Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki in East Nusa Tenggara, Mount Merapi in Yogyakarta, Mount Semeru in East Java, Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra and Lewotolok Volcano in East Nusa Tenggara.

Over the past several months, we have witnessed so much unusual seismic activity all over the globe.

Personally, I am convinced that this is just the beginning.

On top of everything else, an asteroid that was only discovered about 7 hours in advance just hit our planet…

Asteroid 2026 RW1 struck Earth over the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia on September 6, just over 7 hours after it was discovered, becoming the 13th known asteroid detected before hitting Earth. This event added another real-world test of planetary defense systems designed to identify small incoming objects, rapidly refine their trajectories, and determine where and when they will enter the atmosphere.

ESA tracked the asteroid under the temporary identifier CERNQ52 using its Meerkat system and estimated its diameter at only 0.6–1.3 m (2–4.3 feet). Objects of this size are difficult to detect far in advance because they are intrinsically faint, often becoming observable only when they are already relatively close to Earth.

In many other instances, astronomers only spotted a large space rock once it had already flown past us.

We are far more vulnerable than most people realize.

Despite all of our advanced technology, we are very much at the mercy of the natural world.

Unfortunately for all of us, the natural world continues to become even more unstable all around us.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

As you enjoy your Labor Day weekend, you may notice that gasoline and diesel are unusually expensive right now. As I will document in this article, gasoline prices have never been this high on Labor Day weekend, and the cost of diesel is now the highest that it has ever been in the entire history of our country. Needless to say, the soaring cost of diesel is really bad news for our economy, because most of our trains, most of our tractors and most of our trucks run on diesel. In addition, approximately 90 percent of the 500,000 school buses in the United States run on diesel. Unfortunately, this is only just the beginning. The war in the Middle East is not going to end any time soon, and neither is the war in Ukraine. In fact, I am convinced that a lot more war is ahead of us.

Normally, gasoline prices are trending downward as the summer comes to an end.

But that hasn’t happened this year.

In fact, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is above four dollars on Labor Day weekend for the very first time in U.S. history…

American motorists are buying $4 gas on Labor Day weekend for the first time in history, a fuel analyst reports.

A gallon of regular unleaded gas cost an average of $4.15 nationwide on Sept. 6, AAA reports.

There have been moments when the price of gasoline has been higher than this, but it has never been this high so late in the calendar year…

“Gasoline, while not at all-time records, is at its highest level ever recorded this late in the calendar year,” said GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan, writing in a recent post on X.

We are experiencing the consequences of the historic events that are taking place on the other side of the planet.

The war in the Middle East has greatly reduced the flow of oil out of the Middle East, and Ukraine’s relentless attacks on Russian refineries are having an enormous impact on global energy markets.

As a result, we are forced to pay much more for gasoline…

In a normal year, gas prices follow a seasonal cycle, bottoming out in the depth of winter, when people drive less, and rising steadily through spring and summer, when temperatures are warmer, days are longer and Americans drive more.

But this is not a normal year. The Iran war has driven up global oil prices for months. On top of that, Russia has lost capacity in its refineries, De Haan said, amid ongoing attacks in its war with Ukraine. Together, those forces have pushed U.S. gas prices to their highest levels on record for this time of year.

What is happening to diesel prices is an even bigger story.

On Friday, the average price of a gallon of diesel in the United States set a brand new record high…

The national average price for a gallon of diesel now sits at $5.85, according to the AAA motor club. That figure represents a 55 percent jump since the start of the war with Iran, and the price for a gallon of diesel has now overtaken the previous peak, which occurred four years ago following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Then on Saturday, the average price of a gallon of diesel went even higher…

Diesel fuel prices set a new record high Saturday for a second day in a row.

The national retail average for a gallon of diesel reached $5.8819 Saturday, according to AAA’s daily fuel prices report. That’s up from $5.85 on Friday.

This is not good at all, and the situation is particularly dire on the west coast.

In California, the average price of a gallon of diesel has nearly reached eight dollars…

The most expensive state to buy diesel fuel is California, where a gallon on Saturday averages $7.7770. Prices have not exceeded $7 per gallon in any other state, but six other states have per-gallon averages above $6: Hawaii, Washington, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Alaska.

Russia is normally the second largest exporter of diesel fuel in the entire world.

But thanks to months of Ukrainian drone strikes, that is no longer true.

So now global inventories of diesel fuel are starting to get “very, very, very tight”…

“Normally we’d be building up a lot of diesel inventory this time of year, and then we’d draw that back down in October and November. We’re not seeing that inventory build, so folks are looking out and saying ‘wow, inventories are going to be very, very, very tight,’” Miller said.

Miller said the capacity taken offline in Russia could make it a long road to return the average cost of diesel to under $4 a gallon.

“Diesel’s not going below $4 a gallon, oh for a very long time, if possibly ever again,” Miller said.

It would be extremely difficult for me to overstate the seriousness of this crisis.

The crack spread for diesel has skyrocketed to levels that were once believed to be unthinkable…

Diesel is used to produce the food that you eat every single day.

This year, much higher diesel prices are hitting our farmers like a sledgehammer…

Dale Hemminger runs a dairy and cabbage farm in Seneca Castle, N.Y. “Diesel is our fuel,” he says. “We have to run tractors and harvesters and trucks, and they almost exclusively run on diesel. So, diesel and the price of diesel is a major factor.”

So far this year, Hemminger says, fuel has cost him close to $45,000 for a tank of 10,000 gallons. Last year, it was around $25,000 for a tank.

This is one of the reasons why many are forecasting that you will be paying significantly more for food in 2027.

Of course the cost of diesel is going to affect prices in nearly every other sector of our economy as well…

Soaring diesel costs are raising expenses for trucking, construction, agriculture and other industries that rely on heavy-duty vehicles and machinery.

High diesel prices can stoke inflation by raising the cost of transporting goods across the U.S., thereby pushing up consumer prices.

“The everyday consumer will see higher diesel prices in the consumer goods they purchase,” said Susan Bell, senior vice president of downstream research at Rystad Energy. “Think of the groceries that get shipped around the nation, and fruits and vegetables that come from California and move by truck or rail. It’s inflationary.”

Many pundits are hoping that the war in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine will both end within the next 12 months.

Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

But do you think that will actually happen?

I certainly don’t.

In fact, I believe that the military conflicts that we are witnessing will only intensify as we roll into 2027.

So don’t get too accustomed to the painfully high energy prices that we are experiencing now, because I believe that they will soon go even higher.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.

A lot of people out there never thought that things would get this far. In America today, churches are burning to the ground all over the country. This is happening because we have imported large numbers of people that are extremely hostile to Christianity from foreign nations and because multiple generations of our young people have been raised in our overtly anti-Christian public school system. From kindergarten all the way through college, kids are trained to view the Christian faith through a hostile lens. Meanwhile, they are brainwashed by anti-Christian propaganda in our music, in our television shows and in our movies. In such an environment, the fact that Christian persecution is increasing should not come as a surprise to anyone.

The legal system is one of the primary tools that is being used to persecute the Christian faith in the United States.

On Monday, the Maine Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a mother can be banned from taking her daughter to church and reading the Bible to her…

The Maine Supreme Court unanimously upheld a custody order on Monday giving a father veto power over a mother’s decisions to take their daughter to church or read her the Bible, largely barring the child’s religious upbringing.

As covered last year by LifeSiteNews, the dispute is between Emily Bickford and Matthew Bradeen, the unmarried, separated parents of a 13-year-old girl. The father maintains that their daughter has displayed panic attacks since the mother started taking her to Calvary Chapel of Portland, stemming from fears that the rapture is drawing near and her father and sister will not make it to Heaven.

He produced a witness whose assessment of Calvary Chapel’s sermons claimed that they were potentially psychologically harmful, prompting the court to transfer full control of the child’s religious upbringing from Bickford to Bradeen.

This is absolutely insane.

The couple was never married, and the mother has custody of the daughter.

But now she has been permanently banned from taking her daughter to church because that is what the father wants.

Are we still living in America?

The attorney that represented the mother says that he plans to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court…

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver, who argued Bickford’s case before the Maine SJC, said he plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This opinion rejects the First Amendment right of a fit parent to raise her child consistent with her Christian faith,” said Staver in a statement, calling the opinion “disappointing” and “a serious threat to religious freedom.”

“This opinion goes against other state court decisions involving custody in the context of religious free exercise rights and ignores precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court. We will ask the High Court to take this case and overrule the decision.”

Hopefully the U.S. Supreme Court will be receptive.

But there is no guarantee that they will even be willing to hear this case.

I really detest what has happened to our legal system.

All over the nation, we are seeing outrageous ruling after outrageous ruling.

The far left completely and utterly dominates our courts, and that is not going to change any time soon because our law schools are absolutely packed with radical leftists.

I want to switch gears and talk about all of the church burnings that are occurring in 2026.

Churches are burning to the ground over and over again, and yet the big national news networks barely pay any attention to this phenomenon.

Sometimes, authorities catch those who are responsible. For example, a 19-year-old man was just arrested for his role in the burning of a historic church in Ohio…

A man was arrested after a historic church in Ohio went up in flames.

A 19-year-old man is facing a felony arson charge in connection with a fire that destroyed a historic vacant church on Cleveland’s east side.

Court documents show John McManamon was arraigned Wednesday morning. He is being held on a $10,000 bond.

But most of the time the arsonists are never caught.

Last Friday night, a “massive fire” suddenly consumed a Presbyterian church in Florida…

Crews battled a massive fire at Buckingham Presbyterian church on Buckingham Road in Buckingham on Friday night.

According to the Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District, the fire went through the roof of the church, and crews are still at the scene working to extinguish the fire.

The fire district said the cause of the fire will likely be handled by the Bureau of Fire, Arson, and Explosion Investigations because it is at a church.

A large law enforcement presence was in the area and Buckingham Road was shut down for hours before re-opening on Saturday morning.

Hopefully they will catch whoever did that.

The way churches are erupting in flames this year, you would think that they must be the most flammable buildings in our entire society.

In Mississippi, a fire that suddenly spread like wildfire absolutely gutted the activity building of a local Baptist church…

Rocky Creek Baptist Church will hold its first service Wednesday night after a fire heavily damaged part of its campus a day earlier.

Firefighters responded to the Lucedale church around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, after a fire broke out on the property on Rocky Creek Road.

The blaze gutted the church’s activity building, which houses the gym, kitchen and classrooms.

We have been witnessing incidents such as this from coast to coast, but things have been particularly bad in Michigan.

In Grand Rapids, four firefighters recently got hurt trying to fight a gigantic fire that suddenly roared to life at LaGrand Avenue Christian Reformed Church…

Four firefighters were injured while responding to a fire overnight at LaGrand Avenue Christian Reformed Church in downtown Grand Rapids.

A spokesperson for the Grand Rapids Fire Department told News 8 that the fire started around 11 p.m. Wednesday night on Oakes Street and Sheldon Boulevard. On social media, LaGrave Avenue CRC confirmed the fire happened at the former Seventh Day Adventist building on their campus and there was no risk to the church’s main building.

This sort of thing has been occurring so frequently all over the state of Michigan.

Here is another recent example…

A west Michigan church suffered major damage early Monday morning after fire broke out just before 4 a.m., destroying the gymnasium and causing extensive smoke and water damage throughout the building.

A passerby spotted the flames and called 911 at 3:41 a.m. Byron Township Fire, along with multiple mutual aid departments including Wyoming Fire, responded to the scene.

Pastor Chad DeJong of Byron Center Bible Church arrived around 6 a.m. and immediately knew the damage would be severe.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out why there are so many church fires in the state of Michigan.

Of course the same thing could be said about the dramatic increase in church fires in western Europe.

The big media outlets don’t seem to care, but if a mosque suddenly caught fire it would be front page news everywhere.

In this day and age, it is open season on Christians.

In Idaho, when the owner of a coffee shop discovered that a group of customers had gathered to discuss pro-life issues, he kicked them out…

The founder of a well-known pro-life organization has gone viral in recent days after reportedly being kicked out of an Idaho coffee shop after the owner learned she was holding a meeting there.

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, shared a video of what purportedly took place at Wydaho Roasters last month — and that video went viral.

Hawkins told CBN News that coffee shop owner Jim Sheehan made his displeasure known after she, her son, and others met to discuss pro-life issues inside Wydaho Roasters. Her son’s goal has been to rally people against Proposition 1, an abortion measure that will be on the ballot in November.

This happened in supposedly “deep red” Idaho.

In blue states, the level of hostility toward Christian beliefs can be far worse.

Even if you don’t say anything, you can still get persecuted if you just try to live out your faith.

In Missouri, a Christian grandmother decided that she was going to serve her community by feeding people breakfast for free…

Kathy Kite, a resident of Harrisburg, Missouri, began welcoming locals into her home for breakfast back in May after the community’s convenience store stopped serving breakfast following COVID.

Kite works at H-Town, the local convenience store and gas station, and said residents had repeatedly expressed interest in finding a new place to have breakfast. She lives nearby, so she decided to offer an alternative by cooking for her friends and offering up the food for free.

“I told the old guys that come in there in the mornings that like to play cards, and drink coffee, and eat breakfast, and say they didn’t have any more — I’m like, ‘You guys can come to my house and I’ll do it,’” Kite told CBN News.

People that are willing to make hard sacrifices like that to serve others are the backbone of our nation.

Eventually, approximately 20 to 25 people (including young kids) started to come to her house for breakfast…

At first, it was just a few people. But others soon began to come after her loving act was advertised on social media, with 20-25 people regularly coming to her home in the morning; some parents even brought their kids to her house for food before school. Kite gets up at 3:30 a.m. to prepare for the day.

“And it just kind of exploded from there,” Kite said.

In the old days, going to grandma’s house for breakfast was a cherished tradition.

But now it is a crime.

The control freaks that run things in the area soon sent her a letter insisting that she needed to obtain a commercial kitchen license to continue feeding people breakfast…

But Kite’s breakfast gatherings eventually caught the attention of government officials, with Columbia city officials from the Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services Department reportedly sending a letter telling her she needed a commercial kitchen license to continue operating.

This is a perfect example of what is wrong with this country.

In other parts of the U.S., authorities have literally made it illegal to feed the homeless.

Those that have made such laws should be ashamed of themselves.

Nobody is going to stop me from having compassion on a fellow human being.

And nobody is going to stop me from worshipping God the way that I choose.

I am sure that the legal system will continue to be extremely hostile to us, I am sure that more churches will go up in flames, and I am sure that the entertainment industry will continue to mock us in thousands of different ways.

But they will not win, because the God that created all things can never be defeated.

Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.