In Yemen, fighters from Ansar Allah — commonly referred to as the Houthis — attacked a residential neighborhood in Taiz Tuesday, killing two teenage girls and wounding six others. Ansar Allah has nearly surrounded Yemen’s third-largest city and cut off most of its supply routes. Taiz is currently held by the Saudi-backed government. U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk warned that residents are in serious danger as food runs short and prices climb. This is a resident of Taiz.

Saeed Ahmed: “Citizens are struggling with gas queues, and there was no gas at the station. Only one tanker came in, and it wasn’t enough. Taiz city is now besieged by the Houthis.”

In southern Yemen, the death toll from an Ansar Allah missile strike on a government training camp has risen to 73. The U.N. Refugee Agency reports that more than 250,000 Yemenis have been displaced since the war flared up again in July between Ansar Allah and the Saudi-backed government. Meanwhile, Britain says it will step up its military support to Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia executed a Bangladeshi man and woman in Mecca last week after convicting them of a supposed “indecent act” inside a mosque. Bangladesh says it was not informed of the execution. The execution has sparked public outcry in Bangladesh, since more than 3 million Bangladeshis work and live in Saudi Arabia. According to Amnesty International, Saudi Arabia has executed around 100 people this year; many of them were foreigners convicted of drug offenses.

In Gaza, Israeli strikes killed at least seven Palestinians Tuesday, including a married couple and a 17-year-old, in separate ​incidents across the Gaza Strip. Despite last October’s so-called ceasefire, Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,500 Palestinians in Gaza. This is a brother of a Palestinian killed in an Israeli airstrike earlier this month.

Mahmoud Yassin: “We’re supposed to be in a ceasefire period, but, honestly, we are not seeing a ceasefire or anything. The war is still going on, assassinations are continuing, and the shelling has not stopped. We are appealing to and calling on those responsible for us to put an end to these assassinations and attacks, because we are a people who want to live.”

In the occupied West Bank, Brad Lander, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 10th Congressional District and former New York City comptroller, has been detained by the Israeli military along with at least 80 rabbis, volunteers and activists accompanying Palestinian farmers.

Lander wrote on X, “We were simply harvesting olives in a grove near Nehalim in the West Bank. The occupation is a crime under international law. Harvesting olives isn’t a crime under any law I know.”

In a statement released by Rabbis for Human Rights, acting executive director Anton Goodman said, “We came to accompany farmers to land they have not been able to reach in three years, and after two hours of quiet harvesting large forces arrived and closed the area. No one could have known about this order in advance. Instead of protecting people working their own land, the army is removing them from it, and detaining those who came to stand beside them.”

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is calling on the Department of Justice to arrest the Israeli military commander accused of killing 5-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab and six of her relatives as they hid inside the family’s car while attempting to evacuate Gaza City in 2024. The Hind Rajab Foundation has filed a legal complaint demanding the arrest and prosecution of Sean Glass on war crimes. Glass is currently in the United States. The foundation on Monday posted photos of Glass in New York City. Glass reportedly led the Israeli military’s so-called Vampire Empire Company of the 52nd Armored Battalion. The Hind Rajab Foundation’s general director, Dyab Abou Jahjah, said in a statement, “Glass is not just another man implicated in the killing of Hind Rajab. He is the man who most likely gave the order to open fire on the vehicle carrying Hind and members of her family, including other children. That Glass can walk the streets of the United States as though nothing has happened is intolerable. He must be brought to justice.”

Russia has freed a 74-year-old U.S. citizen who had been imprisoned for over four years accused of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine. Stephen Hubbard spent decades abroad working as an English teacher. He reportedly moved to the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium in 2014. The city was seized by Russia in 2022. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for Hubbard’s release, saying, “the whole nation sends their thanks.” Witkoff is currently in St. Petersburg meeting with Putin. This comes after President Trump reached a major energy deal with Putin to import millions of tons of Russian diesel. Trump’s surprise announcement earlier this month waives a sweeping sanctions law he signed in September targeting Russian oil and gas revenues used to fund the war on Ukraine.
In related news, The Wall Street Journal reports Elon Musk has downgraded the bandwidth speed of a military-grade version of satellite internet provider Starlink used in Ukraine. Both Trump and Musk have expressed anger at Kyiv over its recent attacks on Russian diesel refineries. Last week, Musk claimed only the Pentagon and Trump had the authority to limit the use of Starlink.

France is planning a massive surge in police forces as more nationwide protests are planned for this weekend. The latest deployment announced by French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu comes after hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched in over 140 cities across France on Saturday demanding relief from rising cost of living, improvements to education and other issues. An estimated 2,400 protesters were arrested on Saturday. This is a lawyer representing a student.

Tristan Lawless: “Sometimes the arrests are clearly organized simply to terrify protesters and ensure that a large number of people are arrested, so that it discourages these protesters from returning to Place de la République or Place de la Bastille to assert their rights.”

In Italy, the government is deploying 500 troops to Milan after days of protests against the rising cost of living. It comes as Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni approved new security measures making it easier to prosecute minors over 14. This is Prime Minister Meloni.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: “And preventive detention, which until now applied only to adults, will also be extended to minors. Fourth, Milan will receive 500 additional military personnel until the end of the year, working alongside the police and the Carabinieri, and we are strengthening the juvenile justice system with more magistrates and more places in detention facilities, so that the certainty of punishment also applies to 16-year-olds.”

President Trump on Tuesday told reporters that Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar could go to jail. His comments come days after Homeland Security federal agents raided Omar’s home as part of Trump’s efforts to strip Omar of U.S. citizenship and deport her. The Trump administration has claimed, without evidence, Omar committed immigration fraud in her naturalization process. This is President Trump.

President Donald Trump: “Well, she could be. She could also go to jail. She could also go to jail. You know, they keep talking about deportation. No, she could go to jail. This is just my opinion. I think she’s a sick and very dishonest person, but — who hates our country. And she comes from a country that is essentially not even a country, Somalia. It’s a real [bleep]house.”

In California, Los Angeles election officials say a list compiled by the Department of Justice of some 20,000 alleged noncitizen registered voters includes a “high percentage” of people born in the United States. The new revelations come after a court filing by California state and local officials in response to a lawsuit filed by the Trump administration. Last week, the DOJ gave California 48 hours to segregate the ballots of those named on the list, which local officials blasted as unreliable after an early review of the voters’ records. California said in its Tuesday filing, “At best, this litigation is a reckless political stunt. At worst, it threatens to disenfranchise thousands of Californians this election.”

In Texas, Democratic state representative and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa filed a lawsuit Monday seeking access to 1,200 pages of heavily redacted emails between trillionaire Elon Musk and Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott. The governor’s office refused to release the communications last year to media outlet The Texas Newsroom, arguing they were exempted from public records laws due to “information that is intimate and embarrassing and not of legitimate concern to the public.” State Representative Hinojosa’s lawsuit accuses Governor Abbott of violating a Texas statute that grants lawmakers access to public records, including confidential information.

Rep. Gina Hinojosa: “What this is about is we have the world’s only trillionaire getting massive tax breaks from this governor after giving him over $500,000 in campaign contributions.”

Hinojosa alleges that, in return, Governor Abbott gave Elon Musk $1.6 billion in tax breaks for his planned Terafab project, a massive semiconductor manufacturing hub in Grimes County. She also pointed to Abbott’s support for tens of millions of dollars in grant funding to SpaceX and a broadband internet contract worth over $100 million that was awarded to Musk’s Starlink internet service.

This comes as FEC filings show Elon Musk was responsible for more than half of all fundraising to the Republican-aligned super PAC the Senate Leadership Fund during the third quarter of the year. Musk has spent at least $168 million on the Texas Senate race in support of MAGA Republican Ken Paxton against Democrat James Talarico.

The New York Times is reporting that a prominent Venezuelan billionaire, Julio Herrera Velutini, who was seeking clemency from the Trump administration after facing bribery charges, hired Alina Habba, Trump’s former lawyer, from the Justice Department in a $50 million deal. In exchange, Habba would serve as general counsel at a company set up by Herrera’s daughter. Weeks after Habba started her work at the company, President Trump granted Herrera a full and unconditional pardon. According to the Times, Habba was finalizing her role at the company while she was still serving as U.S. attorney in New Jersey, and as a senior adviser to former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

ProPublica is reporting that defense contractor Navatek made a campaign cash-for-contracts deal with the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as well as Democratic Congressmember James Clyburn and Republican Congressmember Joe Wilson. Navatek’s CEO, Martin Kao, reportedly told federal agents that he would bribe public officials in exchange for government contracts. Kao remembered Graham saying, “This is how much I want, and how much I am going to give you.” Soon after President Trump returned to office, the FBI agents investigating the case were purged.