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A curated weekday guide to major news and developments over the last 24 hours. Here’s today’s news:
IRAN WAR
The U.S. military said yesterday that a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles to disable the steering gear of a Panama-flagged cargo ship, adding that the ship ignored repeated warnings to stop violating a naval blockade on Iranian ports. Maritime Sources told Reuters that the ship was hit off Pakistan while sailing into the Gulf of Oman. Elwely Elwelly and Parisa Hafezi report.
President Trump is focusing on sanctions and the U.S. naval blockade to pressure Iran. However, mediators have warned their U.S. counterparts that Iran has been living under sanctions for years, and betting that Tehran will compromise because of economic pressure is unlikely to yield results. Georgi Kantchev, Henna Moussavi, and Summer Said report for the Wall Street Journal.
IRAN WAR – YEMEN
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis yesterday struck a cargo ship in the Red Sea, killing six people and injuring 10, according to the Yemeni government. The transport ministry said the vessel was hit with three ballistic missiles, causing a fire on board and resulting in the deaths of four crew – three Pakistanis and one Indonesian. Yemen’s coastguard later said a second deadly missile strike killed two rescuers who tried to evacuate the ship. The Houthis said they hit a ship carrying Saudi military equipment. Yolande Knell and Michael Sheils McNamee report for BBC News; Mohamed Ghobari, Jonathan Saul, Nayera Abdallah, and Yasmine Ghania report for Reuters.
IRAN WAR – OTHER DEVELOPMENTS
Two U.S. officials said that U.S. intelligence picked up multiple streams of information regarding the Iranian threat that prompted Trump’s secret Air Force One swap last month. They knew there was a specific threat of a surface-to-air missile against Air Force One, meaning whichever plane was carrying the president, and that someone in the vicinity of the NATO summit in Ankara had been spotted with a shoulder-fired missile. U.S. intelligence was also aware that the Iranians knew specifically where Trump was staying, including which floor of the building. Eric Schmitt and Maggie Haberman report for the New York Times.
Trump yesterday denied that he played a role in orchestrating the ruse to secretly switch planes to depart Turkey last month. “It’s only up to Secret Service,” Trump said. “I just follow what they like to do.” The clandestine operation involved the president being covertly shuttled off Air Force One onto a smaller military plane by an airport catering truck. The original plane was carrying Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Stephen Miller, according to two officials. Rubio had been aware of the threat, but it remains unclear if others were. Emilio Perez Ibarguen reports for POLITICO; Maggie Haberman reports for the New York Times.
RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Vice President JD Vance asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month to stop attacking non-Russian tankers and infrastructure linked to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium at Novorossiysk in Russia, according to Ukrainian officials. The officials said that Ukraine agreed and has not struck tankers near the CPC terminal since then. Christopher Miller, Malcolm Moore, and Amy Mackinnon report for the Financial Times.
Zelenskyy said yesterday that Ukraine has submitted proposals to U.S. negotiators for a plan to end the war. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy also suggested that Russia would use its parliamentary election next month as a pretext to declare a new mobilization. Reuters reports.
OTHER GLOBAL DEVELOPMENTS
“Hybrid attacks are taking place every day in NATO countries,” Germany’s top military officer, Gen. Carsten Breuer, told the Wall Street Journal, adding “Russia is testing us and looking at how we respond” so it can refine its tactics for a future conflict. Breuer said Russia is “already shifting its economy and military to prepare for a wider conflict with the West,” even as it fights a war in Ukraine. Gordon Fairclough reports.
Hungary’s parliament yesterday elected András Baka, a former head of the Supreme Court, as the country’s next president. In his first speech as president, Baka criticised the previous government, saying that during former Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s rule, “one party captured the state,” branches of power were not separate, and there was no functioning system of checks and balances. Nick Thorpe reports for BBC News; Reuters reports.
Meta and TikTok have agreed to fact-check content on border crossings into Spain following the massive rush to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco last month, EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen said on social media on Monday. The platforms have also committed to prohibit content related to people smuggling, an EU Commission spokesperson added yesterday. Reuters reports.
An estimated 2.4 million girls in Afghanistan remain excluded from secondary education five years after the Taliban took over the country, UNESCO said yesterday. “Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls and women are formally banned from secondary and higher education,” Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO’s program coordinator for education in emergencies, said in a news conference by video. “Five years is not a temporary interruption in a child’s education. It is clearly almost an entire secondary school cycle.” AP News reports.
U.S. FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Pentagon told Congress this week that the U.S. military’s airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen last year resulted in 153 civilians killed and another 243 individuals injured. Trump authorized airstrikes against the rebels last March in an operation dubbed “Operation Rough Rider,” following Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. Three operations during that stretch “more likely than not” resulted in civilian harm, the Pentagon assessed in its 12-page report sent to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Filip Timotija reports for The Hill.
Robert Gilman, a U.S. citizen and former Marine, has been released on humanitarian grounds after four years of detention in Russia, the State Department confirmed yesterday. Mariam Khan reports for ABC News.
Ecuadorean fishermen have been attacked by unidentified “gringos” using drones in three incidents, survivors reported, adding that they were hauled out of the water, questioned, and then handed over to El Salvador’s navy before being released. Survivors from two vessels said the assailants were wearing matching uniforms with U.S flag patches, but without clear insignia to link them to an official government force. The Pentagon and U.S. Coast Guard have denied involvement. The New York Times has analyzed flight data and found that a maritime patrol plane flew in the direction of all three boats in the days before they were attacked. The pilots on board spoke English with American accents, according to air traffic control communication recordings. Maria Abi-Habib, Riley Mellen, José María León Cabrera, and Christiaan Triebert report.
U.S. IMMIGRATION DEVELOPMENTS
ICE plans to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices” for officers and agents by March 2027, according to a notice published on Monday by the Department of Homeland Security. Compliant Technologies says the devices function as a normal pair of patrol gloves until officers press a switch to activate their electrical mode. The gloves must be applied directly to someone’s skin to deliver a pain stimulus that typically helps an officer gain compliance within seconds, according to the company. Ryan J. Foley reports for AP News.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS
The Trump administration yesterday barred federal Medicaid funding from being used to provide gender-transition medication and surgery to transgender adolescents. Amy Harmon reports for the New York Times.
The Treasury Department yesterday issued a final rule exempting U.S. companies and individuals from reporting beneficial ownership information to the department’s financial crimes unit. The move rolls back reporting requirements established under a 2021 law aimed at combating illicit finance. Kelly Phillips Erb reports for Forbes; Reuters reports.
The ongoing deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., is projected to cost an additional $1.4 billion through 2029, according to Pentagon information provided to Congress and reviewed by ABC News. Steven Beynon reports.
A new Department of Justice memo argues the president can assert executive privilege not just over communications with his White House staff, but also with “private advisors” outside government. The Monday opinion from the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, while not binding, would broaden the number of people Trump could try to shield from congressional investigation. Rebecca Beitsch reports for The Hill.
White House officials have asked the DOJ to consider a new prosecution of Olympic canoeist David Hearn for vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, according to sources. The DOJ is now considering whether another type of case – likely based on misdemeanor allegations – is even possible. Alex Leary and Sadie Gurman report for the Wall Street Journal.
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION LITIGATION
A federal judge yesterday expanded an earlier block on Trump’s executive order seeking to tighten rules for mail-in voting to all U.S. states ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms. Rebecca Falconer reports for Axios.
Four leading U.S. human rights groups filed a lawsuit yesterday against the Trump administration over its campaign aimed at dismantling the International Criminal Court. The groups said that sanctions on prosecutors, judges, and others working with the ICC prevent them from working with the court to seek justice for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity around the world. Simon Lewis reports for Reuters.
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