The briefing for Sunday, September 13.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed overnight missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, according to the AP, as Yemen's Saudi-backed government described the rebels' rapid advance along the Red Sea coast as a "painful" development in the broader Iran conflict. A Houthi military spokesperson said the group targeted a Saudi military base in Sharurah province, though no evidence was provided. Saudi civil defense reported a projectile struck al-Tawwal governorate near the Yemen border, injuring two people and damaging buildings, which it blamed on the Houthis.

The Houthis' capture of a key port city and an island near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — a vital shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz — has alarmed markets and displaced Yemeni civilians fearing renewed civil war. A senior Yemeni government official said forces will return to the Red Sea coast to fight back after witnesses described government forces withdrawing and urging residents to flee. Sultan al-Arada, a member of Yemen's ruling presidential council, called the collapse of government forces in the port city of Mokha "painful and regrettable," saying forces are regrouping.

The National Resistance, a government-allied force previously controlling the coastal areas, reported more than 500 of its fighters killed and 1,500 wounded in fighting since Aug. 9, while claiming more than 1,000 Houthi fighters were killed on multiple fronts. A Yemeni military official blamed a "lack of coordination" between the army and allied militias for giving the Houthis "a priceless opportunity," and expressed surprise that Saudi air power didn't prevent Mokha's capture.

The advance has ended a ceasefire that had largely held since 2022 and puts Houthi forces within 20 miles of the main U.S. military base in Djibouti, across the strait — a base also used by China, France and Japan. Oil prices have risen again as markets weigh the risk to a critical global shipping corridor, even as the Houthis maintain that other commercial vessels are not being targeted.

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration's plan to cut staffing at FEMA by 50% was unlawful, marking a win for labor groups that sued the Department of Homeland Security. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston wrote that top DHS officials directed FEMA leadership last year to submit a staffing plan including the 50% cut even though the agency's own supervisors objected, calling the figure something that "appears as if pulled from thin air."

Illston found the plan violated protections established after Hurricane Katrina that place FEMA staffing decisions in the agency's own hands, not DHS's, and bar DHS from "substantially" reducing FEMA's functions. She did not order a specific remedy but directed both sides to negotiate a course of relief. The 50% cuts were never fully carried out, and FEMA has rehired some staff following leadership changes.

The ruling comes after a turbulent stretch for the agency: more than 4,300 employees, about 17% of FEMA's workforce, left during the 2025 budget year, prompting a Government Accountability Office finding that the departures caused a "loss of institutional knowledge" and worsened long-standing workforce problems. A Trump-appointed FEMA Review Council backed away in May from recommending the 50% cut, instead calling for a "strategic review" of staffing needs.

The decision represents a significant check on the administration's broader push to shrink the federal workforce and raises questions about how FEMA will be staffed heading into future disaster seasons. The GAO has recommended Congress require FEMA to base major staffing decisions on more rigorous planning.

Security researchers say rapid advances in artificial intelligence have made it far easier to exploit a known flaw in Georgia's voting equipment that can allow voters to be matched to their cast ballots, according to the AP. The vulnerability doesn't allow votes to be altered, but it could let someone determine how specific individuals voted — a serious concern given that ballot secrecy is a right under Georgia's constitution.

The flaw, discovered in 2022, involves cast-vote records and electronic ballot images from Dominion Voting Systems equipment (now sold and renamed Liberty Vote) that are supposed to be randomized but can be reordered using publicly available data. A Princeton researcher demonstrated that a publicly available AI assistant could reverse the shuffling and match most ballots to specific voters when combined with early voting lists and public records. "AI coding tools are essentially supercharging laymen people to exploit vulnerabilities," the researcher said.

Georgia is the only state that uses the vulnerable system statewide, and its open-records law grants access to the documents needed to exploit the flaw — a combination one election security expert called a "perfect storm." Many other jurisdictions using similar equipment have applied a software fix or restrict release of the necessary records.

With Georgia a presidential battleground hosting a closely watched Senate race this year, advocates are pressing state officials to close the gap before November. State election officials say they've taken steps to mitigate potential harm, though critics argue those measures fall short.

Relations between the U.S. and Canada have deteriorated sharply since trade talks collapsed on Aug. 21, with President Trump imposing 50% tariffs on $20 billion of Canadian goods and threatening to cut Canadian firms off from U.S. government contracts and ban products including motorcycles, dairy items and most alcoholic beverages. Canada retaliated with its own tariffs this week, further escalating the standoff, according to the AP.

The conflict is notable given Canada's status as America's largest customer and Trump's own first-term trade pact that made most U.S. products duty-free in Canada. Before the latest tariffs, Canada's effective tariff rate on U.S. imports was about 2.4%, less than half the 5% the U.S. imposed on Canada, according to Oxford Economics. Trump has accused Canada of "ripping off" the U.S. for decades and has floated making Canada the 51st state.

Trade experts note Canada does protect a handful of sectors, particularly dairy, where tariffs exceed 200% on some products above quota — a system former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer once said would "make a Soviet commissar blush." Canada's economy is far more trade-dependent than the U.S., with trade equal to 64% of its economic output versus 25% for America, per World Bank figures.

The dispute threatens to disrupt a historically open economic relationship between the two countries, with implications for consumers and industries — from autos to alcohol to lumber — on both sides of the border.

Turkish authorities detained dozens of people and raided offices and gathering spots associated with LGBTQ+ and HIV advocacy groups in simultaneous early morning raids across Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydin and Mersin, the AP reports. Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said the investigation covers 162 suspects, nine associations and 13 businesses, framing it as necessary to "protect children, the institution of the family, and public order."

Gurlek said the targeted organizations received significant funding from international sources, and their websites were blocked as part of the operation. The Human Rights Association condemned the raids as "a political operation aimed at forcing society into a monolithic family model," criticizing the inclusion of unrelated charges like forming a criminal organization, drug offenses and prostitution as an attempt to "incriminate the entire community."

The crackdown extends a decade-long pattern of hostility toward LGBTQ+ communities under the ruling Justice and Development Party, which banned Istanbul Pride in 2015 after years of large gatherings; authorities have since forcibly dispersed attempted Pride events. This summer, Turkey denied docking permission to an LGBTQ+ cruise ship that had previously visited the country.

The timing, ahead of upcoming elections, has drawn scrutiny from human rights observers who see the raids as part of a broader effort to appeal to conservative voters, despite Turkey's history of decriminalizing homosexuality as far back as the Ottoman Empire in 1858.