AI Takes Control - September 14, 2026

Ana Kasparian (0:13)

There is so much news in this insane news cycle that it is impossible to cover everything that's going on today. But have no fear, we're going to go through the most important stories if you ask me, including updates to some of the disastrous foreign policy decisions that President Trump has made, what that means for the global oil market, what it means for energy shortages. And I'm sure Saudi Arabia is thinking what it means for the future of Saudi Arabia to help us kind of parse through those topics today. Murtaza Hussein, reporter from DropSite News, will be joining us at the top of the show.

We're also going to have Daniel Bessner, who is just a wonderful foreign policy analyst, also a professor and the host of American Prestige. He will be co-hosting with me in the second hour of the show today. So as always, given the moment that we're in, it will be a very heavy foreign policy show today. However, obviously we're going to discuss artificial intelligence and all the various CEOs and executives who are now coming out to say, yeah, we've got a lot to worry about here. We need to slow down.

But how credible are those claims? Is there an ulterior motive? We're going to talk about that as well. As always, just want to encourage you to like and share the stream if you're watching us live. It's a free and easy way to help support our show and keep us independent. You could also become a paying member by going to tyt.com/join or just hit that join button if you're watching on YouTube. All right, well, without further ado, let's get into the first story.

SPEAKER_2 (1:43)

I'm concerned at all about the Houthi seizure of Param Island in the Red Sea and what is the US going to respond to that?

SPEAKER_3 (1:50)

You know, like I concerned certainly it's something that works even pretty close tabs on. We actually feel like we are on top of the situation.

Ana Kasparian (2:01)

Do you because to be honest with you, Vice President JD Vance doesn't really seem like he's on top of things, neither does the whole of the United States government. Now VP Vance also claimed that the US has been engaging in direct negotiations and talks with Ansarallah, which the West refers to as the Houthis. But for the purposes of being accurate on this show, we will moving forward refer to them as Ansarallah. So what comes next now that the now that Ansarallah has essentially taken control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Obviously, the Hormuz Strait remains problematic for the West considering the fact that Iran is able to carry out strikes against vessels transiting through it. And Saudi Arabia seems to be in a lot of trouble. Now, let's go through the big updates from over the weekend and today. Over the weekend, Ansarallah continued carrying out strikes against Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman desperately reached out to President Donald Trump a few times, I believe twice, if not more than that. Begging for US military intervention, Trump declined, saying that we will assist when it comes to intelligence sharing, but that's about it. Now, how do we get here? Well, over the past two weeks alone, Saudi Arabia has faced Iran-backed attacks from the East, the South, and the North. According to the New York Times, a Saudi oil tanker was struck in the Strait of Hormuz at the end of August, killing two sailors.

Obviously, they've been trading strikes ever since. And then on Friday, Ansarullah, which had already declared a blockade on Saudi oil shipments through the Red Sea, seized territory along the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and defeated Saudi allied forces in Yemen. Then on the exact same day, the Saudi authorities announced that they had been forced to shut down a critical oil pipeline known as the East-West pipeline after an Iraqi militia carried out a drone attack. Now, this is the exact scenario in which Saudi Arabia thought the United States would spring into action in order to provide security, protection, military intervention for them. That's the whole point of Saudi Arabia investing so much in military bases in their country, US military bases in particular. They've spent a lot of money on US manufactured weaponry. And they've also spent quite a bit of money trying to appeal to the Trump family. If you can recall, they invested $2 billion into Jared Kushner's hedge fund. So they were under the impression that, hey, when a day like today comes, we can rely on the United States for security. However, MBS called Trump, that's Mohammed bin Salman, called Trump on Friday. And then again, on Thursday at first and then on Friday, begging for help. But when the Crown Prince asked Trump last week to take military action, as I mentioned earlier, Trump declined. And in fact, here is what Trump told reporters during his trip to Ireland on Saturday.