Right, so the Saudis are claiming to have heroically struck down an Ansarallah drone that was heading for Mecca, before it even got to the gates.

Who can tell? It might be so. It might well be that unicorns also occupy the sky over Riyadh.

But before Riyadh starts preaching, expecting the world to sit obediently like a car dashboard figurine, let's actually look at the ground reality.

This is the Bab el-Mandeb Strait of course, one of the world's most important shipping routes.

And now it's quieter than a Saudi press conference when the PowerPoint presentation breaks down, and the generals have run out of excuses.

Saudi Arabia has been bombarding Yemen for years with money, munitions, aircraft, and other people's sons. Despite all this, they have just lost te city of Mokha, Mayyun-or Perim Island, as it is known-and  ...