In Yemen, Saudi forces have carried out airstrikes on the port city of Mokha, after Houthi fighters routed Yemeni government forces and seized control of Yemen’s entire Red Sea coastline and the strategic island of Perim. The group’s rapid advance has consolidated its power over the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a narrow maritime passageway through one of the world’s most important trade routes. The Houthis have said they won’t disrupt international shipping, but reiterated threats to attack vessels from Saudi Arabia.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it struck a U.S. naval drone in the Strait of Hormuz. Separately, projectiles hit two vessels off the coast of Oman, setting one of the ships on fire. At least 15 vessels have been struck by Iran or the U.S. over the last week near the Strait of Hormuz. The latest attacks sent the price of oil skyrocketing further to about $110 a barrel, with U.S. diesel fuel prices soaring to more than $6 a gallon for the first time ever.

In Dallas, Texas, the Republican Party wrapped up its first-ever midterm convention on Thursday night, with Vice President JD Vance delivering a keynote address in what could be a preview of a run at the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. Vance delivered a combative speech, attacking Democrats as “the party of hatred.” Earlier in the evening, violent threats rang out from the crowd as Texas Senator Ted Cruz delivered a speech attacking political opponents as “Islamists” and “communists.”

Sen. Ted Cruz: “When Mamdami [sic] says he wants to seize the means of production” —

RNC attendee: “He should be shot!”

Sen. Ted Cruz: — “he means it. When Abdul El-Sayed says he has a, quote, obligation to comply with Sharia law” —

RNC attendee: “He should be shot!”

Sen. Ted Cruz: “He means it. And when James Talarico says he wants to dismantle capitalism” —

RNC attendee: “He should be shot!”

Sen. Ted Cruz: — “he means it.”

“He should be shot,” someone shouted out at least three times as Senator Cruz named the Democrats. This came just minutes after Cruz condemned the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk one year ago and assassination attempts on President Trump.

Trump also spoke at the RNC for a second straight evening, asking supporters to pledge to “cheat like hell” to help Republicans win the midterms. Trump repeated his promise to send all U.S. adults a $5,000 check, but only if Republicans retain control of both chambers of Congress. Trump faced an immediate backlash to his proposal. Wisconsin Congressmember Mark Pocan commented, “So now it’s $5,000 bribes that Trump will never deliver to attempt to make voters forget what they are paying for gas and food. What ever happened to those promised DOGE checks? Americans are not fools, we know he lies daily.”

The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the state of Missouri from using a new congressional map gerrymandered to give Republicans an advantage in November’s midterm elections. It was the second time this week the Supreme Court issued a ruling on the case in its emergency docket, after a Trump-appointed federal judge in Missouri issued conflicting orders about the new map.

In Ukraine, at least two people were killed and eight others wounded this morning as a Russian drone struck a gas station in Kyiv. Elsewhere, the city of Pavlohrad is marking a day of mourning after a Russian drone hit a shopping mall on Thursday, killing five people and wounding 67 others. Two other shopping malls were targeted by Russia earlier in the week. Ukrainian officials say Russian attacks on private businesses and civilian infrastructure are “rapidly growing.”

The Russian strikes follow an attack by a Ukrainian seaborne drone on Sochi that left 28 people injured, and after Ukraine launched its deepest-ever attack inside Russia, on two natural gas facilities in the Arctic, nearly 2,000 miles from Ukraine’s border in western Siberia.

Nepal’s government is demanding $20 million in compensation from a United Nations fund set up to cover loss and damage from the climate crisis, as rescue and recovery teams continue to search for more than 5,000 people who remain missing more than two weeks after a glacier’s collapse triggered a devastating flood and landslide. At least 1,267 people are confirmed dead. On Wednesday, a U.N. coordinator said Nepal was bearing the brunt of a climate crisis it had little role in creating.

Lila Pieters Yahia: “The devastation Nepal has experienced is an extraordinary, stark illustration of the losses and damages that climate-vulnerable countries are increasingly facing. Nepal has contributed very little to global greenhouse gas emission, yet it is experiencing profound human and economical consequences from a changing climate.”

An alarming new study finds climate feedback loops, including melting permafrost, warmer wetlands and lakes, and raging wildfires, could amplify the effects of global heating by as much as 30% by the end of the century, adding an additional 0.4 degrees Celsius of warming to an already overheating planet.

Here in New York, state, local and national politicians are gathering at the site of the former World Trade Center towers today to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A quarter-century later, more than 145,000 people are still being treated for illnesses related to the collapse of the twin towers, according to data from the CDC’s World Trade Center Health Program. That includes 57,000 cancer patients. Nearly 10,000 people have died from 9/11-related illnesses. This is retired FDNY paramedic Lt. Conrad Matos, who rushed to the World Trade Center on 9/11 and worked on recovery efforts at ground zero for months. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2020.

Conrad Matos: “I was devastated, because, to be honest with you, I don’t know if I would have ran in the way I ran in back on 9/11. I would — might have thought things a little differently, because we went in, we didn’t have enough equipment. We didn’t have masks, respirators, nothing.”

Ahead of today’s 9/11 commemorations, the group September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows led a rally at Union Square on Thursday, followed by a peace walk and candlelight vigil at ground zero. This is Colleen Kelly, one of the group’s founding members.

Colleen Kelly: “Our mission began as this: September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows is an organization founded by family members of those killed on September 11th who have united to turn our grief into action for peace.”

After headlines, we’ll revisit Democracy Now!’s coverage of the 9/11 attacks and look at how the so-called war on terror reshaped the U.S. and the world.

ICE has sent a documented immigrant from Somalia to the notorious detention camp at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Adam Abdullah came to the U.S. as an asylum seeker in 2023. He had a valid work permit, Social Security number, no criminal history and was working as an auto mechanic in St. Paul, Minnesota, when federal agents arrested him last December at the start of Operation Metro Surge. During a brief phone call from detention on Tuesday, Abdullah told Minnesota Public Radio he was shackled by his wrists and ankles and flown to Guantánamo about two weeks ago, after what immigration officials said would be a deportation flight to Somalia.

Adam Abdullah: “From Miami, they say, 'OK, now we go to Somalia. Then, first we go Cuba for refueling, and then we go some other countries to Somalia.'”

Instead, Abdullah was sent to Guantánamo’s Camp Six, built two decades ago to detain people accused of terrorism. Abdullah says he’s among eight Somalis being held there. Last year, the ACLU sued the Trump administration, seeking to stop the transfer of immigrants to Guantánamo, citing punitive conditions of confinement, isolation and retaliation.

In Maryland, local officials are demanding accountability after ICE violently clashed with protesters when federal agents swarmed the streets of a residential neighborhood in the city of Frederick last week. Video released by the group Hagerstown Rapid Response shows ICE agents driving onto sidewalks and grass where protesters and witnesses had formed human chains. Agents surveilling a house in the Taskers Chance neighborhood also beat up peaceful protesters protecting the home with batons. ICE remained there for about 40 hours, with some residents too afraid to leave their homes to go to work or school. Frederick City Council President César Díaz said ICE threatened residents with remarks like “We see you,” “We know where you live,” and “We have your license plate.” More footage shows an ICE agent pointing a gun at people on the ground. Meanwhile, when Frederick police asked ICE whether it had a warrant to enter the house under surveillance, federal agents reportedly refused to answer.

In Denver, Colorado, officials and civil rights groups have filed a federal lawsuit attempting to block the Trump administration from deploying federal immigration agents to voting sites nationwide. The lawsuit accuses Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and acting head of ICE David Venturella of allowing agents to patrol polling sites in violation of federal laws. In May, the plaintiffs say armed federal agents swarmed the parking lot of an active polling site in San Antonio, Texas, to detain a person in plain view of voters. Meanwhile, in Syracuse, New York, ICE agents entered a polling site in June to interrogate a volunteer over a social media post. The lawsuit follows these remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Mullin last week.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin: ”ICE isn’t there to patrol the polling places. We’re there to enforce specific threats. The only reason why we would be at polling places is if there is a threat to that polling place, or we’re serving a warrant on someone that we have been actively tracking down.”

Florida has banned undocumented students from enrolling in public universities. The move comes after a unanimous vote by the Republican-controlled Florida Board of Governors. There are as many as 8,000 undocumented students graduating from Florida high schools annually and over 50,000 undocumented students enrolled in state universities, according to the Florida Education Association. Florida has already revoked in-state tuition for undocumented students.

Robert Cassanello, president of the United Faculty of Florida, said in a statement, “Rather than increasing our university system’s capacity to educate Florida’s future workers and leaders, this rule stymies growth and closes doors that have helped our communities.”

Anthropic has published a threat intelligence report showing how “bad actors” have attempted to use artificial intelligence models to design weapons, launch cyberattacks and surveil adversaries. Among several potential plots uncovered by the report was an attempt by one user to write a grant proposal for “gain-of-function” research into a mosquito-borne virus that could make the pathogen more virulent and transmissible.

This week, Anthropic admitted to a fourth incident in which a “misaligned” AI tool gained access to the open internet and hacked into external systems. The rogue AI agent only stopped its cyberattacks when it exhausted its token limit. Anthropic admitted to the breach on Wednesday just after one of its researchers, Jacob Coxon, publicly resigned, warning that the race to produce superintelligent machines poses an existential threat to humans.

Meanwhile, an investigation by The American Prospect finds Anthropic is building out an extensive monitoring system to keep tabs on activists who oppose the rapid development of AI.

“NAZA,” a film that portrays the Israeli military’s use of secret AI-powered systems to deliberately and systematically target and kill civilians in Gaza, received a record-breaking 24-and-a-half-minute standing ovation during its premiere Thursday at the Venice Film Festival. This tops the previous record-setting ovation of 22 minutes — for “The Voice of Hind Rajab” last year. ”NAZA” is the latest work by Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and filmmaker Rachel Szor, who both won an Oscar for the documentary “No Other Land” along with Palestinian co-directors Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal.

“NAZA” was shot in secret on rooftops in Tel Aviv across three years and builds on testimony from Israeli military and intelligence sources who spoke on the condition their identities be concealed. The film’s title references an acronym used by the Israeli military as a shorthand for civilian killings in Gaza, including of children. This is Yuval Abraham speaking from Venice.

Yuval Abraham: “Part of why we wanted to make this film is because I think that hearing testimonies from officers who themselves, you know, operated these systems of killing, designed them, can make the denial of the crimes harder, and there is a direct correlation between the silence or between the denial of the crimes and their ability to persist.”