Yemeni forces say they retook Bab el-Mandeb from the Houthis; justices split on Boulder climate suit; Trump readies diesel tax relief
Evening: Treasury warns banks still dealing with Iran; France’s school riots top 5,000 arrests; Spain heads to early elections; FBI files on Trump family travel released; DOJ sues Delaware over tuition for illegal immigrants; Court turns away ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ case.
Saudi-backed forces of Yemen’s internationally recognized government staged a lightning advance Monday to retake the coast around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait up to the city of Mocha, pushing the Iran-backed Houthis out of most of the areas they seized last month, the government said, Reuters reported; Reuters could not independently verify the gains, and the Houthis called the claims baseless. Leadership council President Rashad al-Alimi confirmed the “recapture of strategic areas and sites in Dhubab and Bab el Mandeb,” the Washington Examiner reported, while Houthi fighters advanced near Taiz, leaving that city surrounded, according to government military sources cited by Reuters. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan agreed at an emergency meeting in Riyadh on Monday to rapidly deploy forces in Saudi Arabia under their Mecca defence pact, Reuters said.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued an alert Monday warning that foreign financial institutions still transacting with sanctioned Iranian banks “could be targeted at any time without advance notification and should take immediate action to terminate such activity,” under the campaign it calls “Operation Economic Outcast.” Separately, Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, described the country’s circumstances as “among the most difficult periods the country has faced” at a weekend economic meeting, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency, the Washington Examiner reported. The Examiner said the rial fell to about 2.7 million per U.S. dollar to begin this week, citing a free-market exchange-rate tracker.
More than 5,000 people have been arrested since France’s protests over underfunded schools and teacher shortages began, 87% of them minors, and more than 1,800 face prosecution, France’s Justice Ministry said, Fox News reported. A teenager lost his hand and part of his lower arm to a police dispersal grenade in the town of Lens on Monday; his life is not in danger and the case was referred to the national police inspectorate, the Washington Examiner reported. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has promised more education funding and a five-point “road map,” but the promises have done little to calm the streets, the Examiner said.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced early general elections Monday after right-wing opposition parties joined forces last week to defeat two emergency housing decrees, the Associated Press reported. In a national address, Sánchez framed the vote as a choice over whether Spaniards “wish to join that far-right wave,” while the opposition Popular Party, which already holds the most seats in Parliament, is expected to campaign on corruption and the government’s handling of this summer’s mass border crossing into Spain’s North African territory of Ceuta, AP said. Sánchez, in office since 2018, has also been a vocal critic of the American and Israeli war against Iran, according to AP.
President Trump is preparing an executive order to expand access to tax-exempt red-dyed diesel, normally reserved for farm and off-road use, that could be unveiled as soon as Monday, Reuters reported, citing two sources; a third source said it would likely direct the Transportation Department to coordinate with states to waive taxes on road diesel. Dyed diesel is exempt from the 24.4-cent-per-gallon federal highway tax, and the national average diesel price was $6.32 a gallon Monday afternoon, the Washington Examiner reported. Trump has ruled out a diesel export ban after G7 countries agreed last week to release up to 100 million barrels of oil and diesel from emergency stocks, the Examiner said.
President Trump said Monday the B-1 bombers at Britain’s RAF Fairford were brought home because “there were some threats,” telling reporters on the White House lawn, “they didn’t fly out by accident,” the Washington Examiner reported. Asked whether Iran had smuggled attack drones into the U.K. for a possible attack on the base, Trump did not answer directly but said, “If they did, they’ll suffer greatly.” This updates our morning report on the pullout from RAF Fairford.
Documents released Monday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force show the Biden-era FBI tracked Melania and Barron Trump’s travel while planning the 2022 Mar-a-Lago search and monitored Susie Wiles’ cellphone from February to May 2023 for calls with nearly two dozen lawyers connected with Trump, with logs also reflecting contacts with campaign aides, political advisers and some journalists, the New York Post reported. The probe was code-named “Plasmic Echo,” and the surveillance collected call details rather than the contents of conversations, Fox News reported. “Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said, according to the Post.
The Trump administration is suing the University of Delaware over a policy that lets certain illegal immigrants pay the in-state rate while U.S. citizens from other states pay thousands more, Fox News reported. The Justice Department says the school charges Delaware residents about $15,740 a year versus about $42,470 for nonresidents, a $26,730 gap, and argues the policy violates federal law, 8 U.S.C. §1623(a), which bars residency-based college benefits for people not lawfully present unless citizens can get them too. Fox said Delaware is the latest target in the administration’s nationwide push against immigration-related tuition benefits.
President Trump said Monday the United States is “willing to help” Russia with a potential pneumonic plague outbreak after the death of a researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, adding that he had not spoken to Vladimir Putin about it, the Washington Examiner reported; earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the case a “cause for focus” but not “alarm,” saying, “We’re watching and monitoring it closely.” Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has said the 28-year-old worker had “pneumonia of unknown etiology” and that testing found no microorganisms associated with her work, Fox News reported. Fox said reports that nearly 200 contacts are under observation have not been officially confirmed; our full story on the Irkutsk case has more.
The Supreme Court opened its new term Monday with nearly two hours of argument in Suncor Energy v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, and it wasn’t clear whether a majority agreed with the energy companies that federal law bars Boulder’s state-court climate claims, SCOTUSblog reported; with Justice Samuel Alito recused, a 4-4 tie would leave the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, letting the case proceed, in place. Chief Justice John Roberts asked what would stop other cities from filing copycat suits, and Justice Clarence Thomas asked whether large fuel retailers could be sued, to which Boulder’s lawyer Kevin Russell said, “Nothing in our theory prevents that,” the Washington Free Beacon and SCOTUSblog reported. The Washington Examiner said a majority appeared open to ending the case on the ground that the Clean Air Act preempts state law, with a ruling expected as soon as early 2027.
In Monday’s order list from its Sept. 28 “long conference,” the Supreme Court denied review in hundreds of cases, including two Michigan middle-school brothers’ challenge to a ban on their “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts, leaving in place a 6th Circuit ruling that the school could treat the slogan as vulgar, SCOTUSblog and the New York Post reported. The justices also declined the federal government’s appeal in United States v. Hembree, leaving a 5th Circuit ruling that the felon-in-possession gun ban was unconstitutional as applied to a man with a simple drug-possession conviction, and turned away Washington state firefighters’ religious-accommodation challenge to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, SCOTUSblog said. The Court also turned away Roy Moore’s bid to collect an $8.2 million defamation award against Senate Majority PAC, SCOTUSblog reported and the order list shows.
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